Guns Meet Wings
by gpeach6
Summary: When the Flock accidentally meet the NCIS team, the Voice tells Max to trust them, but as they get closer, the NCIS team put themselves in more danger and deeper into the horrific past of these amazing kids.
1. Guns Meet Wings

**A/N: Hola! This whole first chapter was written late at night, but that's when I get my best ideas and I'll tweak it a little so it makes more sense! Tiva (Tony/Ziva), maybe McAbby (McGee/Abby), Nudge/Iggy, and our fan-favorite… FAX! You should all know what that stands for, but for you new-comers that don't, it's Fang/Max! It's set after MAX and I don't know which NCIS season so you're just going to have to deal with that! I don't know how to put an accent mark on Ziva's last name, so I'd just like to say to you newbies who don't know it's pronounced: Daveed, but that's not how it's spelled! So now that that's all over with, I'd like to introduce this chapterrrrrrrrs SPECIAL GUESTS! Representing Maximum Ride please welcome… NUDGE!**

**Nudge: Hiya! ZOMG! I am sooo exited to be here you don't even know! Max didn't want me to come but I gave her the bambi-eyes and she couldn't say no! I wonder if you'll ever get her here! This is a cool room! It's kinda dirty and gross but it's kinda nice!**

**Me: that's because we just moved in and we haven't painted and gotten our new floors in yet! Anyway, our guest from NCIS is the one and only…. TONY!**

**Tony: What am I doing in this dump? Why did you drag me here? *mutters to himself* Boss's gonna kill me…**

**Me: Shut up and greet the people, DiNozzo! Then Nudge may state my disclaimer!**

**Tony: Uh… Hi, people!**

**Nudge: As much as she would like to, Gpeach6 does not own any of the characters or the general stories of NCIS or Maximum Ride! Even though I know she really wants to! Now, as she would say, on with the story!!!!**

**Max's POV:**

"HEY, YOU KIDS! STOP, NOW! I am an official agent of the NCIS and I _order_ you to stop running!" The strange old man's last words caught my attention, and I made an immediate stop, turning on my heel to unleash a full Max death-glare on this very unlucky old dude, astonished when his piercing blue eyes glared right back into my own. The others followed suit, only Angel's glare was a little lack- luster- judging by the look on her face, I could take a wild guess *note the sarcasm* and say that she was probably reading his mind. That or she _really_ had to go potty.

"You '_order'_ us?!" I responded rather icily after staring down this peculiar man. Okay, so I should probably explain this situation to you so you can get the full extent of it.

It all started when we went into town to buy some much-needed groceries for the safe-house the government (with a lot of help from my mom) convinced us to live in. It wasn't permanent, but I can't resist my baby Angel and my chatterbox Nudge's bambi-eyes and Gazzy and Total's complaining all at the same time- so I caved. There had also been some… um…. persuading from my boyfriend, Fang. Yes, we are, in fact, finally together, and if you'd have read the fifth book, you would have known that, but back to the story at hand. We were attacked by M-Geeks when leaving the convenience store and this old man, who was a surprisingly fast runner, showed up and claimed to have seen everything. He demanded we come with him to NCIS headquarters for questioning. The man was tall and thin with startlingly blue eyes and short, white-ish and gray hair. His face was clean-shaven and he wore a nice blue button-down shirt under a gray suit-jacket. He seemed nice enough- Angel seemed to trust him- but we'd been down that road before and we were not going back, so we ran as fast as we could. Now that you are filled in, let us go back to the present situation…

"Yes, I do believe that's what I said. Wasn't it?" the agent answered, raising his eyebrows and making creases show on his forehead. I was about to retort with a snide remark, but I was rudely interrupted by a certain Voice that hasn't annoyed the hell out of me in weeks. _Maximum, this man's name is special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs and he will help you save the world. You must trust him along with his team of special agents. Tell him your story and he will give you his help in return. You can't do this on your own, Maximum. _With that, the Voice's presence left my head and was replaced by a different, more welcome voice that belonged to my favorite sweet little seven-year-old. _We can trust him, Max. He just wants to help us and I really think we should give him a chance! Pleeeeeeaaaase?_ When I turned to look at Angel she was giving me one of her world-famous (not really, but they're super adorable and irresistible) bambi eyes. I sighed in defeat, and she smiled and clapped her hands, enjoying her victory.

"Fine. We'll go with you but don't expect a proper introduction from us until we're all in all at this 'safe' HQ place." Gibbsy smirked victoriously and motioned for us to follow him. Fang gave me an "are you insane" look, and I mouthed "the Voice" in reply, earning a nod from Mr. Strong-and-Silent. We maneuvered our way through the crowded streets, with me checking on the Flock every few minutes. They all seemed fine- they had complete trust in me- except Nudge, who had to press her lips tightly together to suppress all of the questions and general babble boiling up inside her. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Agent Gibbs stopped in front of a huge office building. I took a deep breath as we entered the massive building, and panicked a bit when I realized we were taking the elevator. I closed my eyes and took deep, shaky breaths as the elevator car lurched upward, and didn't open my eyes until there was a pleasant _ding!_ and the sound of the doors opening. As soon as we all exited the elevator, the agent rounded on us again.

"I believe now would be the time for that proper introduction before you meet my team. I'll start. I am Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and you are…?"

"I am Maximum Ride, Max for short, and this is Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel." As I finished my sentence, there was a low growl from the ground next to Angel, and I tacked on, "Oh, and our dog, Total." Agent Gibbs nodded and led us through a maze of cubicles until he suddenly stopped in the middle of four desks, three of which were holding people, one (which I assumed was Gibbs's) was left empty.

"Hey, Boss," greeted a good-looking man in a nice gray suit. He had short sandy-blonde hair, and deep green eyes. His feet were propped up on his desk, his hands supporting his head.

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs snapped, smacking DiNozzo in the back of the head. I chuckled audibly as he immediately straightened up. "Children, I'd like you to meet Special Agent Anthony 'Tony' DiNozzo, Special Agent Ziva David, and Special Agent Timothy McGee. This is my team. Team, meet Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel." _Grrrr…_ "… and their dog, Total." After he was finished I took in the appearance of the other two agents the woman, Ziva, was very pretty. She was about the same age as tony, and she had long, silky dark-brown hair that reached down her shoulders. Her warm, chocolate-brown eyes matched her tan-ish skin-tone beautifully. Ziva was definitely foreign- probably from Israel from the sound of her name and her overall look. I also couldn't help noticing that Tony kept looking over at her like she was a sweet piece of chocolate after he hadn't eaten in days. Every now and then she would catch his eye and they'd have a moment of deeply gazing into each other's eyes then both tearing away suddenly. _Jeezums, that might get a little annoying, _I thought.

"Hello, nice to meet you," she said professionally with a slight accent. Yup, she was definitely from Israel. She threw a dazzling smile our way, and then continued with what she had been doing before our arrival. McGee, though he didn't have as impressive looks as the other two, had more of a kind, fatherly air about him, even when he was typing busily away at his computer. His hair was cut short and light brown, which matched his eyes. The introduction had interrupted his typing and he gave us a kind smile.

"Hello! I bet Abby'll be excited to meet you! Have you met Abby or Ducky yet?" he asked, his eyes lighting up when he said the name 'Abby'.

"No, we haven't. Who're they?" I answered suspiciously.

"Abby Suito is our forensics specialist and Ducky (Dr. Mallard) is in charge of autopsy. Now that McGee mentioned it, we should probably take you down there right now, so you'll've met everyone by the end of the day," responded Gibbs assertively.

"But, Boss, you never really explained what they're doing here…" McGee protested weekly.

"I'll tell you when I get back, McGee! I'll bring Abby and Ducky up her so we don't have to explain everything three damn times!" Gibbs snapped and McGee nodded meekly in response. Gibbs then motioned for us to follow him back to the elevator- but stopped before he passed the tip of his desk, whirled around, and spoke again. "Actually, Ziva, McGee, Tony, come with us down to Abby's lab. I think some of the explaining that has to be done should happen in a place where there aren't as many people, so there's no need for them to hold back." He winked at us then led the six mutant bird-children and his team of agents back to the Elevator of DOOM! I admit that is a bit dramatic, but just imagine if you were a claustrophobic teenage bird-girl who lived in a cage for the first ten years of her miserable life, stuffed into a small, enclosed space with nine other people and a dog! I let a sigh of relief as I stepped out of the elevator, but as I breathed in through my nose, I recoiled at the awful mix of the smells of antiseptics and…_death._

**A/N: so, what are your thoughts? I think it was pretty kick-butt! Oh, and sorry if I got the colors of everyone's eyes wrong! For some reason I neglected to look when they were kickin' bad-guy butt! I like to be confident! This was pretty long, so consider yourself lucky! Most authors either right short chapters or long chapters depending on their writing styles, but I just write whatever I can think up and I don't give whether it's long or short!!!! Well, I want my lovely readers to be happy of course, but what you get is what you get, sorry! **

**Tony: Woah, wait a second! Since when do Ziva and I "gave deeply into each other's eyes" or I "look at her like a piece of sweet chocolate after I hadn't eaten in days"?!**

**Me: Since I took over your story! Besides, you know you two were meant for each other!**

**Tony: I have no idea what you're talking about.**

**Me & Nudge at the same time: *roll eyes* suuuurrrrrrrre…**


	2. Explainations

**A/N: okay, I've had this written for a couple of days, but I just now found time to post it. Thank you to the peeps who reviewed and favorited this story! It means a lot to me!!! Now, I think it's time to introduce our special guests for this chappy! Representing Maximum Ride, please welcome… IGGY!**

**Iggy: uh… hi…?**

**Me: our NCIS character of the day isssssssssssssss….. ZIVA!**

**Ziva: Hello… so Tony wasn't kidding…**

**Me: Now on with the chappy!**

**Max's POV:**

"Ducky!" called Gibbs as the ten of us entered the autopsy lab, where the horrible smell became almost overpowering. Nudge and Angel pinched their noses and exchanged disgusted looks, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as Fang slipped my hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Come on out, Duck! There's someone here I'd like you to meet! Make that six someones!"

"Yes, Jethro?" I almost jumped out of my skin as a British man around Gibbs's age came out of almost nowhere. When I noticed that he was wearing a white lab-coat covered in blood stains a shiver ran down my spine, and I almost up and ran right then. I had to keep reminding myself that he worked in autopsy which involved cutting open dead bodies.

"Ducky, meet Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel… and their dog, Total. Kids, this is Dr. Mallard, but you can call him Ducky," Gibbs started.

"Pleasure to meet you," Ducky said politely and nodded in our direction.

"Uh…hi…"I responded awkwardly.

"Jethro, may I ask what these children are doing in NCIS headquarters?"

"You'll get the whole story when we get to Abby's lab, which is our next stop," Gibbs answered patiently.

"Uh… I hope you don't mind if I make a small suggestion, but we're taking the stairs this time," I demanded in a no-nonsense tone. There were several nods and "yeah"s in reply and we headed to the stairwell which we descended to yet another lab filled with tech-y computer stuff that I knew Nudge would love. That fact was confirmed when her eyes widened in awe, and her hand flew to her mouth.

"Why is she doing that- is she going to be sick?" Gibbs inquired worriedly.

"No, she's fine. She's just a bit of a chatterbox and she doesn't want to unleash the Nudge-Channel on you guys," I explained nonchalantly.

"Well, it's okay we have a bit of a chatterbox of our own who you're about to meet. Why don't you allow her to talk before she explodes?"

"Okay, but you've been warned. Nudge, you may speak. Don't worry, you won't scare them off. Go on," Iggy urged Nudge as she slowly peeled her hand off of her mouth, parted her lips, and took a long, drawn-out breath. _Here we go._

"ZOMG! This place is soooo cool! You guys are actually, like, agents? Well, I mean, we've met agents before, but that was different 'cause you guys seem waaay cooler than them 'cause all they wanted to do was ask us questions and that was boring. And, Max, I was wondering why we could use our real names with these guys. Well, I bet they aren't the names we were born with, but I guess we'll never know, huh? Wouldn't it be so cool if they were? Actually, we know it's not Iggy's real name 'cause we met his parents once and they called him James, but I don't think he's a James. He looks more like an Iggy to me! Speaking of names, you guys have such cool ones! I mean, Ziva David- how fun is that to say?! Hey, McGee, I was wondering, why does everyone call you and Gibbs by your last names, but everyone else is referred to by their first names?" Nudge finished her rant, staring up at McGee with round, innocent brown eyes.

"Wow… you really can talk… and I don't know… it just kind of stuck, you know?" he answered with a smile. Before anyone had time to comment on other things she'd said, a woman dressed in mostly black and skulls entered the room. Her thin jet-black hair was tied into pig-tails on either side of her head. She was about McGee's age and had trusting brown eyes that strangely reminded me of Nudge's, despite the obvious difference in styles.

"Hey, guys, what's up? Who're the kids… and dog?" she asked perkily. She _looked_ Goth, but she sure didn't _act_ Goth.

"Hi, you must be Abby! I'm Nudge, this is Iggy, Angel, Max, Fang, Gazzy, and our dog, Total. It's so nice to meet you and now we can finally explain everything which is where I am going to hand this over to Max! This more her area of expertice…"

"Uh… thanks, Nudge… Okay, I'm going to give you a full summary of our lives, so brace yourselves. It started out when a bunch of insane scientists put their heads together and decided to create a new race of human kind- hybrids of human and animal DNA. They inserted avian DNA into five pregnant mothers' babies. There were six extraordinary children born to these mothers- all taken either forcefully or voluntarily from them, all of them born with wings and the ability to fly. These kids grew up in cages and were only fed enough to keep them alive. The oldest of them tried to take care of the rest as best as she could- even when they were tested on and treated with neglect and brutality. One of the scientists- Jeb Batcheldar- felt bad for them and took them under his wing- hypothetically, of course-and helped them escape. They lived happily hidden away in the mountains with this man for two years until one day, he disappeared. The kids mourned for him for two more years before the scientists- known as the School- found them. They sent their hunters- half-man/half-wolf hybrids called Erasers- after them. They took the youngest child of the six kids, who now referred to themselves as the Flock, back to the School. When the remaining Flock members went looking for her, the Erasers took over their home in the mountains which they used to call safe. Their last shred of a feeling of safety was torn away from them as they realized they were now homeless, even though they found the youngest girl, they were still on the run. They found another branch of the School called the Institute for a Higher Living. They released many experiments from this lab- including a talking dog, which they kept. The kids found out that the man they had thought of as a father had betrayed them and turned his own son- Ari- into an Eraser. A…. A-Ari hunted them down, out for their blood. He'd always been jealous of the Flock… a-and he hid that through a cloud of hate… H-he hurt the oldest boy in the Flock… and the others had to take him to the hospital, where they met a woman from the FBI who helped them… they went to school… a real school, like the ones where you _learn_. They felt normal for once, like they had a _real_ mom who wasn't just a kid herself… but she was one of them! She betrayed them like everyone else did… they couldn't trust anyone... but each other. Months later… the Flock found out about a bigger company called Itex. When they set out to find and destroy it, they were captured and A-Ari helped them escape. The eldest and the leader of the Flock brought him with them when they escaped, but that didn't make F- the oldest guy happy. H-he didn't trust Ari, and he left her with the two other girls- one six and one eleven, plus their talking dog and an Eraser. She was torn- her best friend and second-in-command had left her and brought her little trooper and her blind pyromaniac. The remaining Flock members and Ari went to Germany to bring down the head Itex Headquarters, with a surprising outcome. The leader found that the first two people she would have picked back in the day were her Mom and Dad- Dr. Valencia Martinez and Jeb Batchelder. She also learned that Ari was her half-brother, and he was scheduled to die sooner than later. They battled Itex with the reinforcements sent by the boys who they met with later-and they won… at a cost. He died protecting me- in my arms… my little brother…. He only lived to be eight years old… only a year older than Angel…" My voice almost cracked on the last word, and I took a deep breath, regaining my composure. I cleared my throat and continued. "After we joined back up, we had a funeral for poor messed-up little Ari, and headed off to Antarctica to do some Global Warming research. We ended up having to fend off this Uber-Director guy- what remained of Itex- and saving the world again. Then we caught Mr. Chu, who kidnapped my mother, and happened to have been dumping toxic waste into the ocean, so we stopped that too… We've been staying in a safe-house provided by the government. Oh, did I mention the wings and special powers? Yeah, well we have those too! Our senses are abnormally acute, and we've developed special… gifts… sooo, despite being treated like trash for the first ten years of our lives, it's pretty darn cool for us." I took another deep breath as the terrible horror-movie-esque memories came flooding into my head and crashing down on me like a tsunami, almost knocking me to the floor. I gripped the cold metal table to stay steady, using it as a life preserver.

"Oh, you poor, poor babies!" Abby sobbed, tears streaking down her cheeks which made her mascara run. She hugged each Flock member in turn- even Fang, who stood rigid against her embrace. The whole team seemed shell-shocked by our horrific past- even smug Tony seemed somewhere in between sympathetic and horrified. Gibbs' brow furrowed and his expression became one of curiosity, as he slowly came to life after being completely traumatized.

"You… said you gained special powers other than flight. Could you be more specific?" he requested.

"I have a Voice in my head that might have been implanted in my head by wacko scientists that gives us helpful hints but annoys me to no end, can fly at super-fast speeds up to 250mph, and breathe under water. Fang can blend into his surroundings completely if he stands still too long, and he can breathe under water also. Iggy can feel colors and see things against a white background. His hearing seems to be even more acute than the rest of ours- which helps him get around using a type of echo-location. Nudge can tell the history of any inanimate object around her just with one touch, attract metal at her will with her bare hands, and has an unusual talent with computers and mechanics. Gazzy can mimic any sound or voice that he's heard in his whole lifetime, and release toxic butt-fumes from his already jacked-up digestive system from which he got his name- the Gasman. Finally Angel… Well… when it comes to super-human powers, little Ange hit the jackpot. She can read and control minds, talk to fish, breathe underwater, and changer her appearance to that of a different little girl, a blue bird of paradise, or, which she just recently achieved, a full-grown woman," I finished finally. You should have seen the looks of utter disbelief on their faces.

"Can you demonstrate any of these talents?" asked Gibbs skeptically.

"Okedokie! Tony, do the chicken dance," Angel ordered in her creepiest, most manipulative voice. The NCIS gang watched with mixed looks of awe and laughter as their colleague, looking utterly confused, started dancing and making chicken noises. "Now, do the tango with Ziva." I was starting to get the feeling she was enjoying this waaay too much. "Stop, both of you, and look at me." A second after they obeyed, the spell seemed to break, and they both seemed confused and embarrassed. "Now, everyone, think of something I would never guess. Are you ready? Okay, let's see… **EW! GROSS TONY I'M NOT EVEN GONNA SAY THAT OUT LOUD!** Ziva, oh my gosh! That is sooo weird! Multi-limbed cows?! Abby, 'I like pudding' isn't very unpredictable!" Angel rolled he eyes and shook her head. We all gave Abby questioning looks.

"What?! I couldn't think of anything, okay?!"

"_McGeeeeee!"_ Angel whined. "Ugh! You people aren't very creative! I mean seriously, 'Abby likes Caff-Pows'? Hmmm… very interesting memory, Gibbs." He jumped suddenly, and Angel giggled quietly. "Max, we forgot to mention that I can actually _send_ people mental messages. Can I try out my other one, please?" she asked sweetly. When I nodded, her sweet face morphed into that of a woman in her twenties with long, wavy blond hair and dazzling blue eyes. She gave us a bright smile, showing off her cloud-white teeth, and then changed back into her seven-year-old self.

"My turn!" Nudge announced excitedly she directed her hand toward a pen on the other side of the room, and in seconds in it flew across the room and straight into the palm of her awaiting hand. "Abby, where'd McGee go when you missed him so much?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about…" Abby answered a little too quickly, seeming a little nervous.

"I'm talking about the pictures I'm getting of you writing 'I missed you, McGee' and 'Welcome back McGee' on a bunch of things at his desk." Tony chuckled quietly from across the room. "Oh, and is your computer locked? 'Cause I'd like to show you my other talent…" The conversation started off from there, with the flock showing the NCIS team their talents, and the NCIS team telling us stories from past investigations. It was quite pleasant, actually, and it felt a little like home, with a new part of our family connected to us by a bond not one of us had ever expected. Joking, laughing, showing each other tricks- it all seemed like the kind of family I'd always wished for as a little kid. The happy kind you only ever see on TV- the kind that we could've had if we were ever normal. After that was all over with, we said goodbye to Abby and Ducky and returned to the "bull pen" as they called it. We all sat around for a while, being utterly quiet until Gibbs spoke up.

"I think it would be a good idea for the kids to meet the director. Well, at least the older ones should. Max, Fang, come with me. You too, DiNozzo!" he ordered. _This should be fun_, I thought bitterly as I followed Gibbs back through the maze of cubicles, Fang trailing right behind us.

**Still At the Bull Pen…**

Nudge sighed dramatically, resting her chin in her hand. She was thriving for something to do other than watch Ziva and McGee work! _Hey, Nudge?_ Angel's unexpected presence almost made Nudge jump up from her perch on Ziva's desk next to Iggy, but her surprising amount of self-control kept her composed. _Yeah, Ange? _She thought back.

_I want to talk to Ziva alone. Can you get everyone else out of here, please?_

_Sure, but why do you want to talk to Ziva?_

_It's about something she almost thought earlier before the thing about cows. There was a name- Michael Rivkinn. _Nudge nodded to her little sister, then turned to Iggy- he was good at manipulating people and making up stories… "Hey, Igs," she whispered, almost silently, so only he could hear, "we need to get everyone but Ziva and Angel out of this room this instant." He nodded and winked at her – that was one thing she liked about Iggy- he didn't have to ask, he just went with the flow.

"Hey, McGee, Nudge, Gazzy, Total, and I wanted to go down to see Abby again because there was something we forgot to tell her, but we don't know our way around here. Could you take us?" Iggy asked innocently.

"Uh… sure," he answered, and they were gone within minutes. Angel waited until she could no longer see them behind the stairwell door to speak.

"Ziva, can I talk to you for a sec?" Angel asked.

"Of course, what would you like to talk about?" she answered immediately.

"Who's Michael Rivkinn?"

**~End Chapter~**

**A/N: okay, so this one is really long, so enjoy it! Mysterious ending, huh? Especially for those of you who don't watch NCIS or haven't seen that episode and have no idea who that is! **

**Ziva: that's personal! Why are you bringing him into this?!**

**Me: Shhhhhh! Don't give it away!**

**Iggy: I have no idea what you're talking about because I'm blind therefore I can't even read this!**


	3. Wings Meet the Director of NCIS

**A/N: Hola, me peeps! Sorry it's taken me so long to update this fic! I've had it written down for a long time, but I didn't know it was finished until recently. Then I kept forgetting to post it and got busy with school work and all that jazzie fun stuff, but I'm back now :D! By the way, I figured out which NCIS season it is! It's season 7 after Masquerade! You know what time it is now? That's right; it's time to introduce this chapter's special guest! In this corner, representing Maximum Ride isssssss……GAZZY!**

**Gazzy: What am I doing here?**

**Me: Didn't you hear me? You're this chapter's special guest! Now be quiet while I introduce the NCIS guest! Heeeerrrrrrrrrressss ABBY!**

**Abby: Hi! She took me from my Labby! Arg!**

**Me: Okedoke, it's about time for the chapter to get started! But first, I must state yet another disclaimer… D: Here we go!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or Maximum Ride. I also do not own the whole Michael Rivkinn story- I borrowed that one from the season six finale! It was very good!**

* * *

_Previously: (Angel) "Who is Michael Rivkinn?"_

Ziva stared in complete shock at the little girl for a few seconds before conjuring up a response. She then raised her eyebrows, her emotionless mask returning on her stunning face. "Where did you hear that name?" demanded the ex-Mosaad officer.

"You accidentally thought it when I told you to think something I'd never guess. Ziva, I need to know…" Angel answered.

Seconds after she'd finished speaking, she gasped in pain as what seemed like thousands of thoughts, images, emotions, and memories- none of them belonging to her- all flashed in her brain at once.

_A man- Israeli, Angel noticed- dressed in nice clothing kissed Ziva softly on her cheek._

_Tony shouting furiously at her, his brows furrowed. _

_Tony and the Israeli man lying on the floor of an apartment, drenched in their own deep red blood. Tony had his gun pointed at the man, Ziva had hers pointing at Tony, and the man lay pale and still on the floor- dead. _

_The last image was of a man in a naval uniform standing next to a woman who looked exactly like Ziva- but she surely couldn't be the tough, unstoppable ninja Angel had heard so much about. The woman in the mental picture was bruised and bleeding her head hung on her shoulders as she sat there motionless, reminding Angel of a squashed bug. The only thing assuring the little girl that the woman was alive were the deep, rasping breaths escaping her cracked lips every other second. _After the images, Angel almost cried out in agony as mixed emotions associated with people's names streamed through her head. _Pain… Anger… Sadness…Anger… Pain… Love… Love… Tony… Michael… Betrayal… Father… Michael… Tony…_

Angel finally gave in to the pain and screamed as loud as her genetically enhanced lungs could manage. This made the pain come to an abrupt halt, and sweet little Angel slid to the floor in a fetal position, sobbing uncontrollably. The former assassin bit her lip as she watched the scene, not exactly sure what to do in this situation.

"Angel?! I… I am so sorry… I forgot- I did not mean to make you upset! Angel, please, do not cry! I will explain to you the entire story, so you understand what you saw," Ziva pleaded, not wanting to see the child cry. Angel nodded, her loose blonde curls bouncing and her clear blue eyes still filled to the brim with tears threatening to spill over.

Ziva sighed- as much as she hated to see her cry, she was not very happy about having to explain this to a child, assuming she would not understand.

"Well, Michael Rivkinn was a fellow Mosaad agent that I had dated a while ago. He became a suspect of one of the cases NCIS was investigating, and Tony was very angry because I did not share all of the information I could have. We got into a fight, and one night Tony came to my apartment to question me further when I was not at home. Rivkinn was there, and he had been drinking too much alcohol. He attacked Tony and Tony shot him. We went to Tel Aviv to speak to my father- the director of the Mosaad, and I ended up staying there and becoming an officer of the Mosaad again. They sent me to attack a terrorist ship, and I failed and got captured. They tortured me for information about NCIS. Ton- the NCIS team found and saved me, and when I came back I became an NCIS officer once again. That is all I have to say on the subject," Ziva explained emotionlessly. Her mind traveled to the ship, when DiNozzo showed up to save the day. She recalled his words like the event had happened a day ago…

***Flashback***

_"So, how was your summer?" Tony asked, a forced smile plastered on his bleeding lips, despite the current situation. Typical DiNozzo- trying to make a joke out of everything…_

_"Out of all the people who could have found me, it had to be you…"_

_*Skip Scene*_

_"__**Why**__ are you here?" she asked harshly._

_"Couldn't live without you… I guess…"_

***End Flashback***

Ziva, remembering Angel could read minds, shook her head to snap herself out of her reverie. Angel gave her new friend a small smile, and stood slowly from her crossed- legged position on the floor next to Ziva's desk.

"We should probably go save Nudge before she says or does something totally stupid. I was desperate when I asked her to cover for me," she suggested. Ziva nodded, giving Angel a small smile and a chuckle in return as they headed to the elevator.

**Director Vance's Office…**

"Leon, I'd like you to meet some… special visitors. Max, Fang, this is the Director Leon Vance of NCIS," Gibbs introduced us, failing to suppress a smirk as we stared down the Director's outstretched hand like it was made from toxic waste. Leon Vance was a serious-looking African American man with a short crew cut and a no-nonsense air about him. He had the tips of his fingers together and was looking up at us through his glasses, reminding me of Dumbledore from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter.

"Max and Fang… Where have I heard those names before?" the Director thought aloud. "Ah, yes, the Flock, am I correct?"

"You've heard of us before?" I inquired.

"Yes, we are a federal agency, and you have been under the protection of the government. You have had naval training as well," answered Vance. "What brings you to the Naval Base?"

"Well, Gibbsy here met us while we fought off some baddies at some random convenience store that sells coffee." Ah, the poetic language of a mutant bird kid.

"I see… and why has 'Gibbsy' brought you to NCIS?" questioned Vance skeptically.

"I brought them to NCIS to question them about whatever it was that attacked them! My gut told me that these kids needed our protection! Why wasn't I informed about this, Director?!" Gibbs answered for us in a rather unfriendly tone.

"You weren't informed about this because it is classified government information. I couldn't have told you if I wanted to. Why don't you just let it go, Gibbs," answered Vance, trying to stay calm.

"Classified government information my ass!" replied Gibbs furiously. "These kids have been to hell and back, and you expect me to just let it _go!"_

"The government kept them a secret to keep them from these so called 'baddies' chasing after them!" I could tell the Director was starting to lose his patience.

"Well that plan obviously didn't work, considering we were just attacked by half-robot thingies created by a wacko Chinese guy that kidnapped my mother a couple weeks ago. We can take care of ourselves anyway. If it were up to me, I'd be somewhere in the tropics sipping pina- coladas out of coconuts right now. By the way, since you're so in the loop when it comes to government information, isn't said wacko Chinese guy supposed to be in jail right about now?" I asked, keeping my cool.

"Actually, yes, he is. I will notify government officials about the attack. I'm sure they will move you to a different safe-house in a matter of days. How many people know about the kids?" asked Vance, turning to Gibbs, but I cut him off before he could answer.

"_Actually,_ we're not moving anywhere. Like I said, we can take care of ourselves. We don't _need_ your help. We spent the first ten years of our lives being tortured by sadistic scientists, skip two years, then we spent the next two alone, and the past year we've spent on the run. If I can save the world, then I can take care of my own family. So… thanks, but no thanks," I finished as I started towards the door, but I felt a warm, calloused hand wrap around my wrist and hold me back. I whirled around to see Fang give me a stern look. "What? Let go, Fang. We're leaving, and that's final."

"Max, they're offering us protection and a nice new home. Look, I know the thought of having a home and being safe scares you, but don't you want what's best for the Flock? I know they don't want to be on the run again- even I don't want to be on the run again!" Well, well, well, wasn't that a mouthful for the supposed quiet one!

"I am _not_ scared of having a home and being safe! And I know the kids don't want to be on the run! I don't either, but I'm not doing this because I want to! I'm doing this because I have to! If you want to spend the rest of your life holed up in some cushy old safe house hidden somewhere in the remote desert, or not being able to go out because everyone who looks at you funny is dangerous, then go ahead! I want to feel safe to, but the thing is, Fang, we'll never be safe! Living under the false assumption that we are ever going to be safe would be stupid! I can't trust them, not because I'm scared, but because I've been betrayed by any adult I've ever trusted except for my mother!" I shouted. Tony, Gibbs, and Director Vance watched the whole argument in slight confusion. Fang's face suddenly changed from furious to calm and understanding.

"Max, I know that this is hard, but could we please give this a try? It's not going to hurt you is it?" he asked. I let out an exasperated sigh and calmed down considerably.

"I think it might… but you're probably right. It'll make the kids happy, so what could possibly go wrong?" Hmmm… how about the whole world being blown up by some insane scientists because I was relaxing in some safe house in Tahiti? But, other than that, it's completely risk free. Fang gave me a small smile that just made my world about ten million times brighter. La-di-da-di-da… Gee, when did I become such a softie? We turned back to the special agents and Director of NCIS.

"Okay… so, say we stay in this safe-house place. How can you 'guarantee' our safety? Hypothetically, of course…"

"I will assign two of my best special agents to stay with you until this whole problem is straightened out, but you will have to wait because, even though I am the Director of a federal agency, I cannot get you into a new house in the D.C. area for at least a few days," answered Vance officially.

"Well, where are you planning to put us until we have a house?" I asked.

"You can stay at my house until you have one of your own. Who are you assigning to live with them, Leon?" said Gibbs.

"Agents DiNozzo and David," he answered. Tony looked up, having heard the Director say his name.

"What?!" he asked, earning himself another smack on the back of the head, brought to you by Gibbs. "Sorry, boss," he mumbled.

"Now, go back to your jobs. I have work to do," ordered Vance. Tony and Gibbs nodded respectfully and led us back down to the squad room…

**At the Bull Pen….**

"Where the hell did everyone go?!" asked Gibbs heatedly. His brow furrowed in confusion. As I scanned the room for any sign of an attack, a small yellow sticky note stuck to the side of Ziva's desk caught my eye. I picked it up and examined it- it was a not from the others written in Angel's chicken- scratch handwriting. It read:

_Dear Max, Fang, Gibbs, and Tony,_

_We all went down to Abby's lab- it's really boring up here. Meet us there. _

_-Angel, Nudge, Total, Iggy, Gazzy, Ziva, and McGee_

_(P.S. That was a lot of names to write down…)_

"I think they went down to Abby's lab…" I told the others. Gibbs turned to me, raising an eyebrow.

"What makes you think that?" he asked skeptically.

"Well, quick thinking, intelligence, and this note that says they all went down to Abby's lab," I stated matter-of-factly. Gibbs took the note, read it, and rolled his eyes at me as we headed down to Abby's lab…

**Abby's Lab…**

As soon as we heard the elevator's signature _ding,_ and the doors opened, Nudge rushed over to me, an excited grin playing on her innocent face.

"Hey, Max! How was the meeting with the Director of NCIS?! Tell me everything! Did you argue with the head of a federal agency? 'Cause if I knew one person who would, it would be you, Max! Is something exciting going to happen? Are we getting a pony?! I love ponies! They're usually so nice! I like the little ones that're like really small and cute when they're just foals! I wonder where they got the word 'foal'. I mean, it has nothing to do with the word horse, but it means a baby horse! Isn't that weird?! A lot of words just don't make any sense! Did you know that a lot of words we use today are derived from Latin? Well they are! Isn't that weird? I think I already said that… oops! If you say the word weird for long enough, it sounds so… weird! Weird, weird, weird, weird, weird, weird…"

"NUDGE! Okay, we get it!" I yelled. She stopped abruptly and stared at her feet.

"Sorry, Max… Did you have fun with the Director?" she asked.

"You could say that…. I have some… news for you guys."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the ending… but I'll start typing up the next chapter tomorrow and hopefully it'll be up sometime this weekend! Reviews are appreciated!**


	4. The News

**A/N: Hiya, peoples!! I think I'm just going to wing it for this chappie, because I don't have anything written down yet, but I've realized my updating has taken really long lately. I apologize for that, my lovely readers! Okay, since I don't have anything of any importance to tell you, I guess I'll just introduce the special guests for this chapter! Representing MR is… FANG!!!!**

**Fang: (stares at me like I'm an idiot)**

**Me: That hurts, Fang. It really hurts… Anyway, our special guest for NCIS is… MCGEE! **

**McGee: It's official- I owe Tony ten dollars… Darn…**

**Me: Okay… Well, unless my guests have anything to tell the people, I guess we can start the chapter.**

**McGee: Excuse me, where's the bathroom?**

**Me: Okay, enjoy the new chapter while I escort a special agent to the potty.**

_Previously: (Max) "I have some… news for you guys."_

"What is it Max?" asked Gazzy innocently. I took a deep breath and sighed heavily. The kids looked at me expectantly, and even Ziva, Abby, and McGee looked intrigued.

"We're moving again… into another safe-house under the protection of NCIS. Tony and Ziva will be living with us. That's all I know right now. The Director is going to work out all of the papers and everything, and it'll probably take a few days," I said bluntly. How do I describe the looks on their faces? Complete shock? Astonishment? Surprise? All understatements. It took a few seconds for everyone to digest the news that I had so suddenly bestowed upon them. Guess who spoke up first.

"ZOMG! This is soooo cool! I mean, not that I didn't like the old place we were staying, but I thought after the M-Geek attack that we'd have to be on the run again, and I hated that! I mean, it was exciting and all, but it wasn't as nice and relaxing, and we never knew what was going to happen and that kinda sucked! And now we're going to be protected by two federal _agents_ for God's sake! And they're, like, _cool_ people! I don't think I've ever met cool grown-ups before except your mom! This is all so new! I didn't even know grown-ups _could _be cool! Well, I guess you'd get that impression if you spent the first ten years of your life being tortured by evil scientist grown-ups! Anyway, these guys are soooo epically AWESOME! Abby has all this computer equipment stuff that helps them solve CRIMES!!!!!!! Isn't that sooooo cool?! It almost makes me wanna become a special agent! It'd be sooooo cool except the part about the dead bodies 'cause that's kinda gross! But other than that it'd be awesome! What do you think, Max?" If you guessed Nudge, congratulations! Your prize was… drum roll… having to read that whole speech. Yaaay…

"Did you say that me and Tony are going to be living _with _you?!" asked Ziva, taken aback.

"Uh… Oh yeah, the Director assigned you to protect us… I guess Gibbs was gonna tell you," I answered, turning to see that the spot that Gibbs had been standing in just seconds before had been vacated. "Hey, where'd he go?" I scanned the room, counted heads, and realized Gibbs was the only one who had disappeared.

"He left to get more coffee while Nudge was talking… He was starting to get annoyed…" answered Angel sweetly. Nudge huffed, seeming a bit offended. For the first time that day, Iggy spoke up.

"And you actually _agreed_ to all this? What about tonight? Where are we going to sleep?" he asked skeptically.

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot that little detail. We're staying with good 'ol Gibbsy tonight," I answered.

_"Really?"_ said a bewildered Gazzy. Fang, ever the silent one, nodded briefly.

"So what happens now?" inquired Ziva. I sighed, not exactly sure of my answer.

"I guess we just go home, pack our bags, and see what happens," I suggested.

**A/N: Okay, the ending was horrific, it was just a filler, and it took forever. I have excuses for all the above! First, I didn't know where to end it 'cause it wasn't really that good in the first place. Second, I didn't want the story to go too fast so I had to make this just a filler chapter to slow things down a bit. Third, the internet on my account on my computer, like collapsed, so I couldn't update for a long time.**

**Fang: You suck. You've kept me hear with this goofball of an agent for at least three weeks! When is the freaking chapter going to be done?!**

**McGee: Hey! I'm not a goofball of an agent! Your just a cranky teenage birdkid!**

**Fang: Grrrrr…**

**Me: Okay! Guys, you can leave after one of you guys politely asks my readers to review.**

**Fang: Review the damn story, so I can get on with my life!**

**Me: works for me!**


	5. Surprise!

**A/N: Hallloooooooooo! Thank you if you haven't given up on me because I took about fifty million years to update this! I'm sooooooo sorry! My internet on my account got a virus, so I've had to use my mom's. For a little while mom thought the cause of the virus might have been fanfiction, so I couldn't go on for a long time! But I'm back now and that's all that counts! Now that that's over I'd like to introduce this chaaappppppppterrrrrrssssss…… SPECIAL GUESTS! Representing MR we havvvvvvvvve… the creepy but uber-talented ANGEL!**

**Angel: Hi! I am NOT creepy!**

**Me: Not in my story, but I used your attitude from the first three books where you live up to your name and are like an angel instead of the last three where you're like the devil in disguise. You're welcome.**

**Angel: *sigh* Well, thank you… I guess? Don't you wanna introduce the other special guest now?**

**Me: Right. Thanks! From NCIS we haaaaaaavvvvvvve….. PALMER!**

**Palmer: Uh… Hi? Dr. Mallard is not going to be happy that I'm late because of your visiting thing… well, I'm sure he'll understand. So where am I exactly?**

**Me: Doesn't matter, Mr. Medical Examiner's Assistant. I'm just waitin' for one of you to state my disclaimer so I can continue writing without being sued!**

**Palmer: Okay, then.**

**Angel: Gpeach6 owns nothing but the basic plot of this story. As much as she REALLY wants to, and as long as she's put it on her Christmas list, she is does not own Maximum Ride OR NCIS. Okedokie, then, here's the next chapter!**

* * *

Soaring through the night sky over a huge city like Washington D.C., with the wind in your hair, the bugs in your teeth, and millions of little city lights twinkling below you, mirroring the image of the vast sky above you- there's absolutely nothing like it. This is exactly the feeling the flock and I experienced as we followed Gibbs' car by air to his home on the outskirts of the city. We watched as the slim black care pulled into the driveway, and we followed, circling a couple times before dropping out of the air and onto the soft green grass of the agent's front lawn. The serious middle-aged man slid out of the car and headed for the front door like everything was normal at first but stopped half way to whirl around and raise a silver eyebrow at us.

"You comin'? Or are ya just gonna stand there all night?" he asked with a small hint of sarcasm. I looked back at the flock from whom I received several encouraging nods and one small bark as Total came up to lick my hand which was dangling at my side. Ok. Can we say "ew"? But instead of replying with a snarky comment or just getting the hell out of there using my super-speed like the coward I'm not, I took a deep breath and made a decision like the leader I AM.

"Yup. We'll follow your lead." And with that, we walked the twenty feet that changed our lives forever….

* * *

After we'd chosen our rooms (Gazzy and Iggy in the attic, Nudge and Angel in the guest room, and me and Fang on the couch), we were standing slightly uncomfortably in the living room. Then, the strangest and most exciting thing that had happened all day- which was definitely saying something- happened. The doorbell rang. Just one little '_ding!' _changed the whole atmosphere of the room. The whole flock tensed, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Gibbs' hand slide down to his pocket. _Where he keeps his gun. _The thought scared me almost as much as that of what could be waiting on the other side of that huge wooden door.

"Wait here," ordered the special agent. Right about then I realized he was talking to _all _of us. Including the flock's fearless leader. Despite the situation, I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him.

"You mean _they_ wait here because _I _am most definitely coming with you," I corrected him defiantly, gritting my teeth. He looked like he was about to argue, but shut his mouth and just jerked his head to the side, so I could follow him to the door. And that's where we found the most amazing and shocking thing I'd seen in a very long time. Sleeping soundly on an NCIS agent's doorstep, wrapped in a pink blanket in a small woven basket, was the most beautiful little baby girl known to man (since Angel, of course). And guess what else? On her tiny back was an amazing pair of blue, white, and black speckled _wings._

* * *

**A/N: Sooo… how'd you like it? I guess it was a little short, but I'll update sooner this time. Okay? How about that little surprise for ya? Not even unnamed best friend knew that one was comin'.**

**Palmer: Unnamed best friend?**

**Angel: Her best friend who sometimes helps with stories who shall remain unnamed.**

**Palmer: Oh… can I go now?**


	6. Desicions, Desicions

**A/N: Sooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry about how long it's been taking me to update lately! Especially since that last chapter was super-duper short! We had to re-boot our computer because there was this whole virus thing we couldn't get rid of so sorry! Now our special guests! For Maximum Ride we haavvve….. Max herself!**

**Max: YOU CANNOT HOLD ME HOSTAGE LIKE THIS FOREVER! I AM THE INVINSIBLE MAXIMUM RIDE! AAAARRRRG! WHO DO YOU WORK FOR? **

**Me: Errr…. I don't have a job at the moment. I'm just keeping you here until I'm finished with the chapter. It's an honor, really. Now from NCIS…GIBBS!**

**Gibbs: ….*Gibbs slaps me* **

**Me: YES! I'VE BEEN GIBBS SLAPPED BY GIBBS HIMSELF! This is quite the honor.**

**Max: Are you INSANE?**

**Me: *gasp* thank you for noticing! Now will one of you please state the disclaimer so I can continue writing the story in your company?**

**Gibbs: *raises his eyebrows* Gpeach6 does NOT own me, Max, or any of the other characters mentioned in this story. She does NOT own Maximum Ride or NCIS, even though they've been on her Christmas list for quite some time. **

**Me: *GASP* SANTA?**

* * *

Around that time, everything seemed to go in slow motion. I heard a loud gasp and was surprised to find it had escaped my own throat. The next sound to reach my ears was the thud of footsteps as the rest of the Flock thundered into the room. When the thumping stopped, several more gasps sounded through the overwhelming roar of blood in my ears.

_This is another test. Of course, because everything is a damn TEST! _I remember clenching my fists and wanting to shout, because anger was the easiest and most familiar emotion for me to handle. Anger at the School for starting this whole mess, at Jeb for leaving us when he did, at whoever left this defenseless baby on the front step of a special agent who had met us by pure coincidence…

_But nothing is a coincidence._ Then fear crept its way into my head. _Whoever is after us has to know where we are, and they sent this baby to us as a test. _My breath quickened, and I darted out the door, careful not to step on the sleeping baby. In a fighting stance, I searched the perimeter of the house for a potential threat. When I returned to the front door, I felt more exhausted than anything else.

"Whoever left the kid is gone now," I stated glumly to no one in particular.

"Wh-What are we gonna do, Max?" Gazzy asked, fear evident in his clear blue eyes. _I don't know!_

"About the baby? Well, we certainly can't just give her back, considering we don't have any clue where she came from... sooo..." I took a deep breath, ready to make a decision but was interrupted by my little chatterbox.

"We're gonna keep her?" Nudge squealed, jumping up and down excitedly. "OMG! We should name her Elizabeth! Then we could call her Lizzy! Wouldn't that be sooo cute, Max?" I held up one hand in the universal "stop" signal.

"Woah, woah, woah! Don't go naming it! Then we'd have to keep it!" Fang exclaimed from somewhere in the shadows. Iggy raised his eyebrows at him.

"So now the baby's an "it"? She's a girl! What happened to your maternal instincts?" he exclaimed, unexpectedly ticked off. _What is this world coming to?_ Nudge giggled, turning to Iggy.

"That was freakishly sensitive for you, Igs," she commented, causing Iggy's cheeks to turn a light shade of pink. Angel smiled at them, leaving me to wonder what the hell was going on. Gazzy cleared his throat obnoxiously, shaking his head at his best friend, though it was lost on Iggy.

"So what are we going to do about the ba-" Nudge gave him a look. "-Elizabeth?" I heaved another heavy sigh before answering.

"I guess we can keep her for a little while until we find something to do with her," I answered. Fang, who'd been having a hushed arguement with Gibbs during this whole conversation, turned to stare at me like I had just said something like, "Okay, guys, we can keep the genetically mutated evil monkey as a pet".

"What the hell, Max? What if it's dangerous?" he yelled. I glared at my boyfriend.

"'It' is a _baby_, Fang!" I yelled back, putting air quotes around the word "it". I was suddenly furious. "How could you even _say _that about this poor, defensless baby?" The impassive look swept back over his face again, and I knew I had touched a nerve.

"_I_ am thinking clearly! Whoever is after us sent us this baby, which makes it potentially dangerous!"

"Okay, so what do _you _want to do with her, huh? Throw her out on the street and wait for her to die?" When the tension between us was about to break and turn our heated argument physical, Gibbs decided it was time to interfere. He stepped in between us, so I could no longer see Fang's infuriatingly emotionless face.

"That's enough." His voice was as hard and cold as metal. "This arguing is going to get you all killed. Max is right; we will keep the baby until something can be arranged."

* * *

That night, I slept about 5 minutes, lying as far away from Fang as Gibbs' small couch would allow. I couldn't believe how insensitive he was being about this whole situation. For some reason Gibbs had kept a crib in his attic (I couldn't think of why a special agent of NCIS would need a baby crib. Maybe things like this happen all the time at NCIS?) which we put in his room for the baby to sleep in.

I was just starting to relax and fall asleep when I heard light footsteps slowly descending the stairs. My whole body tensed up as I listened. They stopped at the foot of the steps, and I didn't relax until I heard a small voice whisper my name.

"Max?" called Angel. I let out a long sigh of relief as Angel's cute face appeared from behind the wall separating the stairway from the small living room.

"Angel, sweetie, what's wrong?" I whispered back, sitting up on the couch.

"I couldn't sleep," she replied, curling up in my lap. I let myself smile slightly as I kissed the top of her head.

"Why not, Honey?" I asked, now stroking her lovely blonde curls.

"The Baby-Elizabeth- keeps talking to me."

* * *

**A/N: OOOOO! Spooky! Again sorry for the length of time between updates! Microsoft Word doesn't like me anymore, but I figured it out, no worries! Oh, and sorry about the lack of Gibbs in that chapter. I wanted to focus on the flock more since this story goes more with there lives.**

**Gibbs: Why am I still here?**

**Me: 'Cause I'm not finished yet! **

**Max: But you said all you had left was the author's note!**

**Me: This is the author's note!**

**Max: Well, when is it over?**

**Me: Not until one of you asks my readers to review! Politely please!**

**Gibbs: Please review her story, so I can get back to my team. There. Is it over now?**

**Me: Yes. Bye-bye!**


	7. GPS Coordinates!

**A/N: Hey! This shall be updated sooner than than last time! I promise! Ok, so now for the special guests! From NCIS we havvvve... DUCKY!**

**Ducky: Oh! Hello! I was just in the middle of an autopsy... This reminds me of the time when-**

**Me: Okaaaay! Thank you, Dr. Mallard! Now from Maximum Ride we have... DR. MARTINEZ!**

**Dr. M: Umm... Hello...?**

**Me: OMG! You're both Dr. M that is so cool! Anyway, if you review this chapter, you'll get a special shout-out from one of my guests next chapter! (As long as it's not a flame- if you don't like my story, at least tell me why, so I can fix it.)**

**Ducky: Gpeach6 owns nothing! **

**Me: Thanks, Duck! Now on with the new chapter!**

* * *

_Previously: "The baby- Elizabeth- keeps talking to me."_

"What do you mean, Ange?" I asked, becoming totally serious again.

"She's talking to me through my mind. The connection is stronger with her somehow. I think she's smarter than most babies, because she wants me to know things. I-I think she's trying to help us understand," she stuttered. It seemed like words were just tumbling out of her mouth. I'd never seen Angel so at loss for words before.

"_What_ is she tellin' you?" I asked eagerly, wanting more than anything to understand. She gulped, sighed, and more words spilled out of her mouth.

"She told me... She told me that there are still hidden branches of the School on uncharted islands off the coast of South America." As much as I tried not to, I gasped. I mean, we had suspected this before, but there was never any proof that it was true... until now. "She said that they created her as a kind of weapon of destruction. At least, they tried to make her a weapon. She refused to even hurt a fly, and they hurt her... but she still didn't do anything. They planned on re-wiring her brain, and if that didn't make her into the killing machine they wanted her to be, they were going to... retire her. 'But there was a nice whitecoated man' she had said 'that helped me. He went against all the other meanies and took me out of that bad place. He put me in that basket, and he took me here.' She said his name was Jeb, Max. He knew about this all along, and he didn't tell us! We were just starting to trust him again!" Her voice broke at that point, and tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

"Shh... It's okay, Sweetie," I told her, pulling her closer to me and stroking her loose curls as she sobbed into my shoulder, but I had to fight to hold back tears myself.

* * *

The next morning, when we got back to the Navy Yard, we told everyone else about what the baby had told Angel.

"Wait a second," said Ziva, "You said the child was built as a weapon, but what was the target?"

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Fang, meeting the eyes of everyone in the room with his dark, mysterious ones. "The target is _us."_

"But how do we know this is the whole story? She's a _baby-" _

"Why thank you, Nudge. We would have never guessed," stated Iggy sarcastically, earning a stuck- out tongue, a blush, and a death glare from Nudge. "I'm glaring and sticking my tongue out at you!" He chuckled, raising his eyebrows.

"And I can almost feel you blushing."

"I wasn't finished, Iggy. I ment that since she's a baby she might not have all the details right. They don't have really good memory, so there might be missing pieces to the puzzle," she finished, ignoring his last comment, but I noticed her cheeks turn an even darker shade of red.

"Nudge is right," I commented. Nudge smiled triumphantly at Iggy, who rolled his eyes, probably guessing what she was doing. I sighed. They've been bickering like a married couple lately. Even more, I mean. "We might only have a part of the story. I think we should call Jeb and sort this out." Abby raised her hand. "Uh... Yes, Abby?"

"I have a question," she said matter-of-factly. I nodded, expecting her to continue, but she just stood there for a minute.

"The question, Abs?" asked Gibbs.

"Right. Who's this mysterious Jeb?" She looked at me with curious, eager eyes, reminding me more of a small child than an adult forensic scientist.

"Jeb Batchelder. I think I mentioned him in my explaination yesterday. He is- was- a scientist that worked for the School and helped us escape about four or five years ago..." I trailed off, my next words not wanting to leave my tongue. But trusty ol' Fang finished for me.

"...as well as Max's biological father." I sighed... again. Funny how I've been doing that a lot lately, huh?

"Yeah, that too." Tony looked even more confused than before.

"But why would your Dad drop a baby on Gibbs' door?" he asked.

"My mother probably told him about our situation after I called her to tell her everything was all right. I'm not sure, but... I think he gave us Elizabeth to protect her. He knew the School would come after him, and he couldn't be on the run with a baby... So he gave her to someone he could trust to keep her safe." From across the room, I heard baby Elizabeth giggle in agreement.

"But that still doesn't explain why he didn't tell you about all this before," commented McGee.

"Well... I think that he didn't tell us 'cause if we knew, we would try to help him stop what was going on... and then we might get hurt. Maybe he was just trying to protect us. Right, Max?" Nudge's stared up at me with her big, pretty brown eyes, looking so darn sweet and innocent I almost couldn't stand it. Almost. I knew what teh kids wanted most right now- someone to trust. Jeb had been like a father to all of us back in the days when we lived in the big E-shaped house in Colorado. The only father we had ever had, and I knew of Nudge's yearning to be normal and have real parents. No matter how much he had hurt me and my family, he was the one grown-up we had ever really been able to trust.

"I... I don't know, Nudge. But I do know that the School needs to be stopped, and Jeb bringing this baby to us was a move against them. We need to help him."

"But how?" asked Angel, her blue eyes starting to fill with tears again. I bit my lip. _Yeah, Max. How? _Taking a deep breath, I turned to the infant who had been seemed to be following the conversation, eyes wide open and alert. "What are you doing? Max?" I ignored her.

"Er... Elizabeth? Where... uh... Do you remember where you came from?" I asked hesitantly. It was awkward, asking a baby a question like that, but when I heard Angel gasp I knew she had answered.

"Give me a pen and paper! Quick!" Angel shouted to no one in particular. Nudge used her power with metal to zap a pen into her hand, and Abby quickly grabbed a piece of paper off her desk. Angel started to scribble random numbers and letters on the paper. She looked posessed, staring out into space as the pen in her hands flew across the paper. Suddenly, she stopped. "Done!" she exclaimed in satisfaction. I tilted my head, staring at the page in front of her.

"I don't get it..." But Ziva gasped as Abby told everyone what I was staring at like an idiot.

"GPS coordinates!"

**A/N: Whooooo! Another chapter! Aren't I great?**

**Ducky: May I leave now?**

**Me: Sure, why not?**

**Ducky: Please review, bye!**

**Dr. M: See ya later, alligaters!**

**Me: bye-bye!**


	8. We Will Not Testify!

**A/N: Yola! To you those of you who are reading THIS story, consider yourselves lucky. I am putting some of my other fics on hold, so I can finish this one because, frankly, I like this one the best and I know exactly where I'm going with it. Go on my profile page to find out more about this and which stories I'm stalling. Now, without futher ado, my special guests! From NCIS, we havvvvvve...FORNELL!**

**Fornell: I'm not even in this story!**

**Me: I don't really care! I'm running out of characters, okay! From Maximum Ride we havvvvvvvve... JEB!**

**Jeb: You know who else you had here who isn't even in the story?**

**Me: *sigh* Who?**

**Jeb: Palmer. The people who don't watch NCIS were probably wondering who the hell he is.**

**Me: *sigh again* He's coming in this chapter! Now shut up and state my disclaimer.**

**Jeb: That was an oxymoron!**

**Me: You're a moron! Fornell?**

**Fornell: *sigh* Fine. Gpeach6 owns nothing and does not wish to be sued.**

* * *

_Previously: "GPS coordinates!"_

Oh. Well isn't that just convenient?

"So now we can help, right? We can leave soon and go after the bad guys and shut them down... right?" asked Gazzy, almost pleading.

"I'm afraid it's not that easy," countered a deep voice from the doorway to Abby's lab.

Everyone jumped in surprise except Gibbs and Fang. Of course. Standing in the spot where the voice had come from, in all his totally serious, totally powerful glory was Director Leon Vance.

_Jeesh. Doesn't anyone knock anymore?_

We all stared at him in surprise, but he kept talking as if it were just a normal day at the office. Maybe it was. I wouldn't know. "The Flock is now under the care of NCIS. You are our witnesses, and you're not going anywhere." Okay, this guy was seriously starting to get on my nerves, which is a dangerous thing to do.

"Wait just a second! What crime, exactly, are we witnesses to?" I asked, throwing up my hands in frustration.

"The government has been running special Ops against Itex since you got it in the open that they exist. We haven't been able to bring the argument to court because we had no legal evidence. For years we have collected names of people who were involved with the company and still live to this day, lying low, staying under the radar. We haven't had anyone to testify, until now. Maybe you will recognize some faces and give some names, and in turn we will give you protection. I have your safe-house ready." By the time he had finished, I could almost feel impatience oozing from my ears.

"Okay, with all due respect, what we're going to do is going to bring down Itex once and for all, and I know you don't understand because to you we're just kids, but we can do and have seen more than you could ever imagine. So don't go telling us what we can and can't do 'cause I can guarantee we won't listen." By the time I was finished my whole speech, Mr. All-Powerful-Serious-Director had tried to make his face impassive, but I could see right through his mask. The tension in his muscles and the flames of rage burning in his eyes told me he was furious.

"Maximum, by testifying, you _are _helping, and I know you're worried about you're father, but-"

"You don't know ANYTHING about how I feel! And do NOT call me _Maximum_! My name is Max, and I am done with this! Look, I know that all this mojo about us being able to help is total crap, so just cut it out. We're not going to sit around and wait while you try to fix things and the world crumbles around us! I'm sorry, Mr. Director, but we're leaving. C'mon, guys." I motioned to the door with my head. I glanced at Fang, who nodded solemnly, looking sightly bored. Taking a deep breath, I started to lead the Flock out the door, but a small, slightly scared voice made me stop cold.

"Max... Please... We can help you. Just- Just please give it a shot." It was Abby, and when I made the mistake of turning to look at her, I had the same feeling that I was talking to a little kid instead of a full-grown scientist.

_Aw, Jeez._

"Abby... You- None of you understand the danger we're putting ourselves in just being here. We can't stay here. You may think you can protect us, but you don't know what you're fighting. On the other hand, we know all to well. From the day of our birth we've been dancing with the devil, experiencing hell and things much, much worse. We've been through any form of horrible crap you can imagine and a ton of things you can't. These people can create things... awful, terrible, nightmare-ish things. You don't know what they can do- what we can do. We're the best chance the world has of survival." I looked into her eyes, silently begging her to understand.

"No, we don't know what they are capable of, or what you are capable of, so tell us. If we understand, maybe we can help you. You can think about testifying, and if you decide not to, you can leave," inserted Vance. I was about to tell him no freaking way, but I was surprised to be interrupted by one of my own.

"Max... I think we should stay. We can help them, and they can help us. I'm tired of running/flying away and thinking of a plan on the spot. I'm tired of having to fight constantly, and I like knowing I have a bed to go home to and people, except the Flock, who care about me. I think I speak for the Flock when I say that I think we should all have a say in this. We should take a vote." Iggy's voice got stronger and stronger as he continued speaking, and his last words were almost an order. I let out a poof of breath and made one of my split Max decisions.

"Alright. We'll take a vote. Who wants to stay?" I said tightly. Iggy (of course), Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel tentively raised their hands, Total raised a paw, and Fang nodded silently. I even heard some kind of rustling from Elizabeth. _Traitor baby._ I stared in shock at the five of them. _How could they do this?_ "Fine then. We'll stay for a few days in the silly safe-house of yours, but if there is any trouble at all, we're leaving."

"Excellent. I've emailed DiNozzo directions to the house, and I will meet you all there at..." Vance glanced at his watch, "2000." He glanced at the faces of the Flock, which were becoming question marks. "I mean, 8 o'clock." This explanation was met with a couple "ooooh"s. "Well, I have a job to return to." With that, Director Leon Vance exited the room.

When I was sure he was gone I whispered a quick, "Jerk," under my breath before facing the crowd.

"Soooo... What now?" That was McGee. I shrugged.

"I say we go back to the Bull Pen. I'm bored," complained Nudge. We all agreed and took the elavator there. Once we reached our destination, we just plopped down in random desks and attempted to amuse ourselves, when a phone rang. Ziva quickly answered it, muttering into the phone.

"Tony, Gibbs, we are needed in MTAC. McGee, you may come too." The four agents hopped out of their seats and rushed to the stairs. _Okay, so now we're alone. Greeeeaaaat._

* * *

James Palmer sighed as he drove from the airport.

Dr. Mallard, for some reason, had ordered him straight back to the office after he got back from Ohio. He had gone to a funeral for his distant aunt, and even though he didn't know her that well, it was still pretty depressing.

Still wondering why his boss had made him come there, the medical examiner's assistant pulled into the Naval Yard, goin through the usual ID routine at the front. He pulled into his normal parking spot, got out, and locked his car as usual.

_I should go up to the Bull Pen first, just to say hi to everyone before reporting for work. _That's exactly what he did, or was going to do. When he reached the little square of desks his friends sit in, he was met by six kids of varying ages and a small black Scottie. The eldest girl, seated at Ziva's desk, noticed him staring at them.

"Who the hell are you?"

* * *

**A/N: Yay! Palmer! There you go Jeb! So ha!**

**Jeb: Shut up!**

**Fornell: *rolls eyes* You sound like my toddler daughter, Batchelder. Seriously, you're ridiculous! Can I go now?**

**Me: Yup! Oh and I almost forgot! One person did review last chapter! Thank you so much to emotionalpoemgirl!**

**Jeb: Nice name. **

**Me: LEAVE!**

**Jeb: *mumbles as he trudges off* Silly child...**

**Me: Review, please! I'd really like to know if you like it!**


	9. What The Cheese Is Going On?

**A/N: Halloo! The putting on hold of my other fics is really working for me cuz I can update chapters really quickly now! Whoo! Okay, so now for the special guests! From NCIS we havvvvvve... DIRECTOR VANCE!**

**Vance: Hello.**

**Me: I liked Jenny so much better than you. No offense, but you annoy me. Now, from Maximum Ride we haaaaaavvvvvve... TER BORTCHE!**

**Ter Bortche: I am not even in deez story eeda!**

**Me: No one can understand what you're saying. So I suggest you stop talking while Vancey (still like Jenny sooooo much better) states my disclaimer.**

**Vance: Gee, thanks. Anyway, Gpeach6=owning nothing. Even though she would very much like to own Iggy... or Tony.**

**Me: SHUT UP! ... It's true though ;)**

* * *

_Previously: (Max) "Who the hell are you?"_

"I-I'm James Palmer. I-I-I work in autopsy as the Medical Examiner's Assistant. Who are _you?"_ asked the guy who had so rudely interrupted our boredom convention. He was average-height for a man and had glasses and curly light brown hair. Clad in jeans, a gaming T-shirt, sneakers, and a hastily thrown-on lab coat, he looked pretty dorky- not much like an Eraser or a threat in general. I guess you never knew with those whitecoats, though. Looking up and down skeptically, I decided I could take him down in about thirty seconds tops.

"If you work for Ducky, why haven't we been introduced to you before?" I countered. Aren't I just _so_ trusting and welcoming?

"I-uh-I was at a funeral. My great aunt just died. _Who are you?"_ he repeated. Hm... persistant little feller. I glanced at Angel, who nodded her approval.

"Sorry for your loss, Jimmy. Can I call you Jimmy? Anyway, who am I? I'm Maximum Ride, but you can call me Max. This is my family. Over there in Tony's desk are Iggy, Fang, and Gazzy." I jammed a thumb in their direction. The boys each gave a small nod or wave when their names were mentioned. "That's Nudge-"

"Hi!" she exclaimed, smiling and waving enthusiastically. She put an arm around Angel. "This here is Angel! And the Canine-American over there is Total." The small Scottie smiled as much as a little black dog can smile at her choice of words. He looked up at Palmer, who still looked confused.

"Thank you, Nudge for using the politically correct term. I deeply appreciate it," he commented happily. Jimmy looked like he'd just heard a dog talk. Oh, wait, maybe that's because he _had_.

"How-What-did...?" he stuttered, not able to get the words out.

"Yup. Our dog talks. You're not crazy... at least not any crazier than the rest of us. I guess that doesn't say much, does it?" I pretended to consider this, while Mr. Medical Examiner's Assistant gaped at me like I belonged in an insane asylim. He might have been right; I've been having many doubts about my sanity this past year.

"So I guess you don't know about the wings either?" put in Iggy. Palmer gulped.

"W-W-_Wings?_" I tried to keep myself from laughing. Normal people were so fun to mess around with. Our fun was interrupted by Dr. Donald Mallard entering the room.

"Children, I would appreciate it if you would not toy with my assistant," he scolded us half-heartedly, smiling slightly. I chuckled. "Mr. Palmer, are you going to say something or just stand there with your mouth hanging open."

"D- Dr. Mallard! What are these kids doing here? I- I got back from the funeral and came straight to the office like you said, a-and I came up here to say hi to the rest of the team. They were just here when I got here! How did you know I was here?" he stumbled over his own words, looking slightly self-conscious.

"The Flock is here because they are witnesses, which will be explained in more detail later. I knew you were here because the security guard contacted me when you were cleared to enter the building," Ducky explained. "Now, I will meet you in autopsy to explain. Head down with out me, won't you? I need to have a word with the chidren." Palmer nodded, leaving in the direction of the elavator. Once he was out of sight and earshot, Ducky turned to us. "Everyone else is at MTAC I presume?" I nodded.

"What does that even mean?" Gazzy asked exactly what I had been thinking.

"I believe it stands for Multiple Threat Alert Center. Basically it's where they talk to important people about important things," he told us.

"Oh. That makes sense I guess. Is the baby still with Abby?" I asked. He nodded.

"I believe so. I wonder what was so important that they're talking about at MTAC." That comment was met by a couple shrugs.

"Beats me. We've just been bored sittin' here 'till Jimmy came," I told him.

"Well, I didn't come up here because security told me Mr. Palmer was here," he said bluntly.

"Naturally."

"I came because Director Vance told me to come up and take you and the infant to your new safe-house. I must give my assistant a quick explanation for rushing off and meet you in Abby's lab to pick up the baby. Then, we will stop by Gibbs' to grab your bags and some supplies for the baby. Finally, I will see that you reach your new home safely. Tony and Ziva will meet us there," he said.

"Cool, but why does Gibbs have all that baby stuff anyway?" asked Nudge. Ducky suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

"That you must ask Jethro himself, for it is his personal life and not mine," he told her.

"Gibbs had a _daughter?" _Angel gasped. So much for keeping Gibbs' personal life a secret. She blushed. "Oopsie. Sorry..." Ducky sighed, shaking his head.

"It's okay, Angel. Just don't mention it to Jethro."

"B-but what happened?" asked Nudge. His face turned suddenly grim.

"She was murdered along with his first wife while he was serving in the navy. He still hasn't forgiven himself for not being there when it happened." A gloomy silence passed over our whole group.

"Wait. _First_ wife? How many wives has he had?" I asked. I never got to here the answer, for a voice from behind me interrupted Ducky's reply.

"What are we talking about?" We all jumped out of our skins at that.

"GIBBS!" Nudge shrieked, whipping around. The special agent raised a gray eyebrow in question as the other three agents entered the bull pen. Ziva looked from Gibbs to Ducky to the Flock, Tony scrunched his eyebrows, and McGee just stared.

"What is going on?" Ziva questioned. Gibbs smirked, turning around slowly. "Where are you going?"

"Coffee break!" he called behind him. I stared after his back incredulously.

"Does he do that a lot?" I asked irritably. Tony chuckled dryly.

"Is the sky blue?" he replied. I groaned, not liking the sound of that. We were going to spend a lot of time with him, which should prove to be interesting.

"So are you guys finished at MTAC?" questioned Iggy, though they obviously were, considering they weren't there anymore.

"Yeeeessss. That would be why we are here and not still conversin' at MTAC," answered Tony in a "no-duh" tone. Ziva's eyebrows furrowed.

"Conversin'?"

"Talking, speaking, engaging in conversation," he said, rolling his eyes. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but seemingly decided against it. Out of nowhere, Ducky cleared his throat, almost causing me to jump. I had just about forgotten he was there at all.

"I have been ordered by our director to escort the Flock to your new home. He seemed you all would take longer than you did because he said you would meet us there. What were you talking about up there anyway?" he questioned. The three special agents shared a look.

"What? What's going on?"

* * *

**A/N: Soooo do you like it? I'm not sure if I like it, but I'm satisfied because I included Palmer. He rox my sox!**

**Vance: There's too much dialogue.**

**Ter Bortche: He huz a point.**

**Me: SHUT UP! I HATE YOU BOTH!**

**Vance: Goodbye.**

**Ter Bortche: I am leafing.**

**Me: Leafing?**

**Ter Bortche: No, I said leafing.**

**Me: Yeah, leafing.**

**Ter Bortche: Goodbyee.**


	10. Our New House

**A/N: Hellloooooooo, my people! I don't think I have anything special to say about this chapter, so I'll just introduce my guests! From NCIS we have... JENNY!**

**Jenny: Aren't I supposed to be dead?**

**Me: Yeah, well, so was Valentine (Mortal Instruments reference- it's my most recent obsession)! Anyways, I like you SOOOOOOOOOOO much better than Vance!**

**Jenny: Well, thank you. Are you going to introduce the other special guest now?**

**Me: Yup! From Maximum Ride we havvvvvvve...ELLA!**

**Ella: Yo! OMG! This is so cool! I didn't believe Nudge at first, but then Mom was like "she's telling the truth!" and I was like "OMG! Really? Do I get to go?" Then Gazzy said I wasn't an important enough character which made me sad and all but-**

**Me: You've been hanging out with Nudge too much, Ella. Not that I mind much, but it's a little OOC.**

**Ella: *Sigh* I know. Disclaimer: Gpeach6 does not own MR or NCIS. **

* * *

_Previously: (Ducky) "What? What's going on?"_

"We are not authorized to release any information about what was said. I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to break the law just to satisfy you're curiosity," McGee said, a bit self-consciously. "Don't tell them, Angel," he added hastily, for the little mind-reader was just opening her mouth to speak.

"Why aren't we allowed to know? Is about us?" Gazzy asked, gazing hopefully at his sister. Tony rolled his eyes.

"For God's sake! They'll find out eventually, McSecretive!" He heaved a heavy sigh, as he snatched a remote off the desk beside him. Before anyone could stop him, he pressed a button that caused the monitor in front of us to come to life with a faint _beep. _Another _beep _and the Channel 6 news was streaming on the screen before us. A pretty golden-blonde-haired woman with fair skin and teeth so white they looked fake was speaking quickly into a microphone. Her words, combined with her perky smile, gave me an overwhelming urge to slap that bright smile right off her face.

_"Hi, I'm Paula Grady with Channel 6 news, and this is the Bird Watch. As you may know, we've been following the world's new elusive heros with wings. They call themselves 'the Flock'. Sources say they've been spotted right here in Washington D.C.! What are these amazing kids doing in our nations capital, you may ask? There are many possibilities, but locals have seen them traveling to and from the Naval Base. This doesn't come as a surprise, because our sources have confirmed that Maximum Ride and her 'Flock' have had official Naval training. Could the Angel Children be working for the Navy? We'll find out, and report straight to you. I'm Paula Grady, and this has been the Bird Watch. Back to you Tom-"_

We stood in silence for a moment, letting the weight of what the news lady had said crush down upon us. Nudge gasped, suddenly understanding.

"OMYGOODNESS!" she shouted, causing a couple people from other desks to look our way.

"That is not all. The FBI heard what happened, and they claim we cannot handle our witnesses. They wanted to take over the case. They said they have worked with you before...?" Ziva informed us. I laughed dryly.

"You could say that."

* * *

"Sooo... We're going, even though the crazy people after us probably know where we are and most likely are going after us at this very moment?" asked Gazzy, his lovely blue eyes wide with fear and excitement. Tony and Ziva shared a look and shrugged.

"Basically."

"Yup."

"'Kay. Just checkin'." The fear was more evident in his eyes now. _Poor kid, _I thought as I slung my newly- packed bag over my shoulder. I was ready to hit the road, but apparently Nudge was having trouble deciding what to take from our old house. Currently, I was waiting outside our other safe-house, while everyone else was taking their own sweet time packing things for the new house. A shiver ran down my spine, and the hair on the back of my neck prickled, only partly because of the chilly early fall air.

"Hey." I smiled at Fang's voice as I spun around on my heel into his arms.

"Hey," I mumbled into his chest and felt him chuckle. He tilted my chin up, so I was looking him straight in the eyes. Then I couldn't stop myself; I stood on my tiptoes and smushed my lips to his. I felt his smile as I melted into him.

I was so zoned out that I almost didn't hear the muffled giggles coming from the doorway of the house. Almost. Reluctantly, I pulled away from Fang to see Nudge, Angel, and Ella standing on the porch with their hands on their mouths, unsuccessfully silencing their giddy laughter.

"That's it!" shouted Fang playfully as he ran up to Nudge and Angel, tackled them to the ground, and tickled them, which only made them giggle harder. Following his lead, I grabbed Ella and tickled her as she begged for mercy. When Iggy, Gazzy, and my mom came outside, it became a full-on family tickle fight on the front lawn. My sides hurt from constantly laughing.

"Ahem... Sorry, guys, but we've gotta get movin'... Like now," stated Tony awkwardly. Our giggles subsided at that comment, and we stood. The Flock hugged my mom and Ella goodbye and flew off without another word, following Tony and Ziva in the car. They parked next to a big hill, and got out, motioning for us to land and follow them. We circled the area, making sure there were no poor saps in the nearby area that might experience us landing. Once we were positive that no one would see us, we landed next to the two agents, and they led us to our new house and, ultimately, a new future. When we reached the top of the hill, our the house-more like mansion- came into view.

"Woah." It seemed like all I could say, staring in awe of my new home. Steps made of real stone led up to a small patio with hunormous matching stacked-stone collums. Arched windows dotted the front and sides of the collasal house, and lovely purple, blue, and pink flowers poked through the green leaves in the garden stretching the front, which had a mulch path leading out to the backyard. The house itself was massive, victorian-style, and a warm shade of yellow. Old-fashioned white trim lined the roof and the large oak double-doors that held a heavy brass knocker which resembled a fierce eagle, wings spread, trying to escape its wooden confines. We stepped throught those doors into a hall that was even more amazing than the outside.

It looked like the place where all the cool princesses liked to hang out, with its marble floors and grand staircase, winding up to the second floor. All in all, it was a pretty awesome place and a lot to take in.

"I'm gonna go call Gibbs and tell him we've arrived safely. You can check in with the Director, Zee-vah," Tony suggested. His partner glared at him.

"Tony, I thought we agreed _you_ would check in with the Director!" she argued.

"I lied." Ziva's glare hardened, then disapeared. She smiled mishceviously at him.

"Okay, Tony. I will call the Director, but you will regret lying to me," she countered, winked at him, and dissapeared behind a swingy door that I assumed led to the kitchen. The man's eyes had widened considerably as he watched her walk away.

"Oh God," he mumbled, then added to the rest of us, "You kiddies can just explore the house, but beware of the cameras!" He said the last part with a cheesey accent that caused me to roll my eyes. The agent gave me a small smile before following Ziva through the swingy door.

"Okay, guys!" I clapped my hands together once, turning on my heel to face the Flock... that wasn't there? "Guys? Where'd they go?" I asked Fang, the only remaining birdkid.

"They went to explore the house. Claim their own rooms." With every word, he drew closer and closer to me with every word. "You know... We were up to some very important business before we were interrupted earlier."

"Oh, really? And what was that?" I asked teasingly. He swung me around into his arms, leaning in closer until our faces were inches apart. "Oh, yeah. I think I remember now," I muttered breathlessly before closing the space between us.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry it's so short and I took so long, guys! Love ya'll for reading! Please review!**

**Jenny: Please review!**

**Ella: Or the magical bunnies of death will eat you!**


	11. Did Someone Just Say School?

**A/N: Yeah, yeah, yeah! I know you're all debating different ways to murder me through the computer, but it's not entirely my fault I haven't updated in months… Well, I know there's no real excuse for the length of time I'm taking, but I've had a lot of homework since school started up again. Trust me; you do NOT want to go to a smart-person school like mine. So, blame my teachers and my farting brain for my lack of updates! Oh, and if you've read the new MR book, Fang, DISREGARD EVERYTHING YOU HAVE READ IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE READING THIS STORY! The beginning and middle were alright and I like that he brought in some of the old books, but the characters were totally different personalities, Dylan was obnoxious, and the end made me break into sobs! If you have seen any of the new episodes of NCIS and would not like to hear me gush about how awesomely Tiva-ish and fantastic they were, skip the next two sentences and go on to read the story. OMG! THAT WAS SOOOOOOOO SWEET HOW ZIVA WAS ALL LIKE "TONY!" WHEN THE BOMB WENT OFF, AND THEN IN THE CAR WITH MCGEE AND HE WAS ALL "YOU WERE UNDER COVER. IT WAS ALL AN ACT. IT WAS AN ACT RIGHT, TONY? TONY?" AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Okay, you may now proceed.**

"This is _my_ room?" I asked incredulously. When I entered the large room, the first thing I registered was _pink. _With a capital P. Pink walls, pink bed, pink curtains. Not that I have anything against the color; it's just not very… me.

Seeing my face when we entered the room together, Ziva reassured me, "We will be able to paint and buy accessories for the room later. Right now you will just have to deal with what you have." She paused just as she was leaving the room. "Once you are settled in, come downstairs and meet the rest of the Flock in the kitchen. We have some things to discuss before we go shopping."

"Shopping?" I lifted an eyebrow.

"Yes, Max, shopping. I am not a huge fan of it either, but we must if we are to look like a normal family. I would say there was nothing wrong with your old clothes, but I do not wish to lie." By the time my other eyebrow was up, she was gone down the labyrinth of hallways just in the upstairs of this colossal house.

The second thing I noticed about my new room, as my eyes reflexively scanned it for exits, was the size and emptiness. On the far left from the doorway to the hall, there were four French doors that lead out onto a balcony viewing the back yard. The only respectable pieces of furniture were the king-sized bed covered with fluffy pink comforter and fuzzy floral pillows and its little companion, the white bedside table next to it. On either side of the bed were two twin picture windows with flowing pink curtains. When I took off my boots and crossed the room to dump all the crap I owned onto my new bed, the floor felt icy under my bare feet, and I hastily pulled the shoes back on. That would take some getting used to. After taking one last good look around, I stepped out into the hallway, slamming the heavy wooden door with a loud _thud_ that reverberated off the walls. The floor in this part of the house was wood, and it creaked eerily under my feet with every step I took. I used the artwork placed periodically down the path to navigate my way back to the stairs, where it was much easier to find the kitchen.

When the kitchen's swingy door shut behind me, a chill swept over my whole body. Something was wrong. My eyes trailed suspiciously around the room, where they settled on the Flock and the two agents assigned to us muttering angrily amongst themselves.

"Ahem." Heads whipped around to see me standing there, feeling oh-so awkward. "Am I missing something?"

"Uh, yeah. We were gonna wait till' you came down to talk, but you were being kinda slow, so we went on without you. Sorry, Max," Nudge said, looking a bit ashamed.

"It's alright, Sweetie. What were you guys talking about?" I asked. Seeing that no one was answering, Fang spoke up.

"Our favorite Director of a federal agency decided we should go to school to keep up the cover that we're just your average family of special agents and mutant hybrids." Suddenly, I was drowning in a sea of Fang's sarcasm. I was able to resurface long enough to register what he was telling me.

"One word and I'm going to say it very slowly so you might understand: _N…O. _No. Nope. Uh-uh. As in, not going to happen! We are _not_ going through this again!" Suddenly, I felt like a normal teenage girl throwing some kind of tantrum for not getting what she wanted. Yeah right. A girl can dream, can't she? No one seemed very surprised by my outburst.

"Max, I know this may be upsetting for you, and it might bring up some bad memories… but maybe it will be good for you and the Flock have some at least somewhat normal experiences. Don't you agree?" Ziva tried and failed to sound peppy. Before I could respond, a certain 12-year-old motor mouth decided to butt in.

"Yeah, Max! We could do some normal people things! Like make real friends and eat cafeteria food, which Ella says is disgusting, and go to dances! OMG! You and Fang could go to prom together! And I could go with-" she cut herself off abruptly, redness sprouting in her mocha cheeks. "The point is I wanna go! And I don't think I'm the only one…" I stole a glance at the rest of the kids. Fang had his poker face on, Iggy was chewing on his lip like it was the tastiest snack in the world, and the two siblings were nodding their heads in creepy unison. Total held up a paw.

"What?" I demanded irritably.

"Why don't we all take a vote?" When he caught my poisonous glare, he continued hastily, "Look, Max, I'm on your side on this. Do you think I _want_ to be left alone all day with the two scary federal agents? Heck, no! But I think it would be fair if we all got a say." Ugh. You know your life is totally messed up when you start taking advice from your little sister's talking dog. Things were just so much easier when I called all the shots. I swallowed my anger, not wanting to scare the kids.

"Fine. We'll take yet another vote. All in favor of this crappy school idea?" Nudge and Angel's hands were up before I had finished the question; Iggy and Gazzy's were more hesitant, a little less sure of themselves and both of Fang's hands stayed tense on either side of him. _Be a big girl, Max. Go to school. Once there, you may find some answers and some pieces of the puzzle. Go to school, pick up the pieces, and save the world. _

_Oh! Voice! I was starting to miss you invading my brain like a worm! _ Of course, the Voice works on its own agenda, so that was about the end of our lovely conversation. I gnawed viciously on the inside of my cheek as I weighed my options. The Voice hadn't led me astray yet, and I'd have done anything for some answers at that point…

"Fine. We're going to this stupid school, but the same rule applies. First sign of danger, and we're out of there." The following cheers from the Flock did _not_ do anything to improve my mood.

**A/N: All I have to say is that I promise to update sooner next time! And there will be special guests!**


	12. Family Shopping

**A/N: Yola! Okay, I know I promised you special guests this chapter, but I lied. You're lack of enthusiasm is causing my sporadic updates. I got, like, one review since last chapter! I'm beginning to believe that you have all given up on me. You won't get anything really good out of me if you don't give me any feedback. I know I took a long time to update last time, but no one reviewed then either! Rawr. I'm might have to start being mean and making you give me a certain amount of reviews before I update at all!**

**

* * *

**

About ten minutes after I had sulked up to my room like the teenage girl I'm becoming, Ziva came to collect me for our "family" shopping trip. Then it took about another ten minutes to get my stubborn butt out the door and in the car. I suggested we just fly there, but it didn't take long for Tony and Ziva to object.

"We are supposed to look like a normal family. We can't risk the neighbors spotting six flying kids and their talking Scottie taking off in our back yard. Plus, I know that if we let you go now, you will probably 'forget' where the house is and 'accidentally' never come back." I suddenly got the sense that this ninja chick knew me already. It was funny, because I'm not the most fun person to get to know. Still, I could not argue with this and endured being squished into the back of a minivan (a black, government version of one, anyway) with the rest of the Flock.

Exactly twenty-two minutes and seventeen seconds of torture later, we pulled into the parking lot of the local mall. Nudge, who had been squished between Iggy and Angel in the middle row of seats, gasped, grabbed the blind boy by the hand, and dragged him out of the car with Angel following closely as the caboose. I rolled my eyes, sighed, and shared an exasperated look with Fang before exiting the little car. Gazzy crawled out miserably behind us. Tony, seeing the little boy's unhappiness, grabbed him by the shoulders, bending down on one knee so he was looking him straight in the eye.

"Come on, Gazzer! It's not every day you get to go clothes shopping in D.C. with two special agents to protect you!" he said enthusiastically. Gazzy looked him up and down skeptically but his mouth twitched up a bit in the corner.

"I guess not, but I don't like shopping. It's too girly. _Nudge_ likes clothes, and she's my big sister. So obviously _I_ can't like clothes." Tony chuckled.

"Well, I'll tell you what; we'll go clothes shopping and get stuff for all of our rooms first. Then, if you want, we can take a little detour to the toy store. How does that sound?" Gazzy's sweet face broke out into a childish, dimply grin.

"Awesome! I saw this cool new Lego spaceship on this commercial…" he went off on a long description of the toy as Tony took his hand, and together they followed the rest of the group.

"I didn't know DiNozzo is good with kids," I muttered to Ziva.

"Me either," she replied, her expression bewildered.

* * *

_I have officially decided that I _hate_ the mall._ As a claustrophobic bird-kid with a tendency to be rashly violent, I did not appreciate being wedged between Ziva and the throng of shoppers milling around the stores. Though I didn't enjoy the atmosphere and the shopping (shudder), I had to admit the smell of fresh-baked soft pretzels and other tasty pastries was quite inviting. We walked and talked and shopped like normal people, stopping in home and hardware stores to get paint and such for the rooms. Vance had told both of the agents that we would get a catalog to order furniture later, so for now we were just picking out fun colors, bed sheets, curtains, etc. It's safe to say that my mood plummeted considerably once that was done.

"Okay, guys, now that we've picked out all of the paint and stuff for the rooms, we have to conquer the dreaded clothing stores." Gazzy groaned, and Nudge squealed. I continued on as if they had not made a sound. "We'll split up into boys and girls for obvious reasons and go off and get some new clothes. Then, in about an hour, we'll meet up at the toy store over there before we go home," I pointed in the general direction of the store mentioned. "Okay?" Everyone nodded in agreement. "Oh, and if there's any trouble, remember the safety plan we established earlier!" I called as the boys were walking away. Then, I turned back to my group.

"We should go to Aero postal first! Or we could go to Abercrombie! OOOOOO I know! Hollister!" Nudge squealed, taking Angel's hand in one of her own and mine in the other and dragging us into the "trendy" store with the name _Hollister _printed above the entrance. I wondered idly when she had gotten so strong. "Okay, let's do this! Oooo, Max, this would look great on you! Look at that! Oh my goodness! Isn't this so much fun?" My groan of protest was muffled by the various items of clothing being dumped on my head.

"Nudge, honey, slow down! We just got here! We have an hour. Chill out." Her cheeks went a little red, but she calmed down considerably.

"Sorry, Max, it's just that we haven't gone shopping in, like, ever, and I forgot how exciting it all is!"

After that, Nudge and Angel went and explored the rest of the store, while I wandered around, plucking experimentally at some items that didn't seem way too frilly. "Nudge was right. That would look good on you." I almost jumped at Ziva's voice from behind me. Then I realized I had still been holding some of the items Nudge had smothered me with. I picked up the piece in question and examined it closely. It was a black pleather jacket with fake diamonds forming a pattern of spread wings on the back. In the front it zipped up in a crisscross, with one side overlapping the other.

"I guess." I shrugged but kept the jacket in my hand.

By the end of our hour of allotted time, the younger girls had at least six bags each, and I had two or three of practical flying/fighting/running clothes plus the jacket Nudge had picked out for me. "Do you both have at least one practical outfit?" I asked for the fifth time. They both nodded in exasperation.

"Max, how many times are you going to ask that?" Angel asked. I chuckled.

"Until it you can be proved liars. I bet as soon as you need something sensible to wear, you'll wonder why you didn't listen to me in the first place." Ziva joined in laughing, shaking her head.  
"Hey, Max, I have to use the lady's room. I'll meet you guys by the toy store in a couple minutes," announced Nudge, already heading in the direction of the restrooms.

"Alone?" I asked anxiously. She smiled.

"I'm a big girl now. I know how to go potty by myself," she replied, and I silently cursed myself for teaching her the art of sarcasm.

"Ziva, can you go with her? I don't want her to be alone if something happens." The agent nodded, following my chatterbox to the bathroom. When Angel and I reached the store where we were to meet the boys, they were already there waiting for us. I noticed Tony silently counting heads, ending with a confused expression.

"Nudge and Ziva went to the lady's room. Everything's alright," I assured him. He nodded, his confusion clearing, but after almost a half an hour of toy shopping without either of them, I began to become anxious. I could see identical worry on DiNozzo's face.

"Shouldn't they be back by now?" he asked. I nodded, gnawing on the inside of my cheek. About five minutes later, right when I was about to send out a search party to look for them, I caught sight of two familiar faces charging through the crowd toward us.

"Thank God," I muttered, letting out a big puff of air, but as they drew closer, I saw the blood oozing out of a large gash in Nudge's cheek. Her eyes were swimming with tears and filled with terror. Once they reached us, I knew that something was horribly wrong.

"Max, we have to go, like, now!"

* * *

**A/N: Dun dun duuuuuuuunnnn! So there you go.**


	13. Theeerre Baaaack!

**A/N: Hello, peoples! I think I ran out of characters for the special guests, and I really don't feel like it right now. Please just be grateful I was able to give you another chapter within a reasonable amount of time. However, if you have any suggestions for characters you would like to see, I'll be open to use them if you review.**

**Disclaimer: Two words: I wish.**

"Come on, Ziva! Hurry up! I gotta pee!" Nudge called back to the agent, who chuckled lightly.

"I am coming! I am coming!" she assured the young girl, who was watching her carefully and impatiently as she squeezed through the throng of shoppers blocking the path to the ladies' restroom. Nudge wondered how it could take one person so long just to cross the thirty stinkin' feet to the bathroom, so her friend could relieve her bladder. For a moment, she was surprised by herself, thinking of this woman as a friend. It really was crazy, considering they had only known each other for less than a week. It was true though, she guessed. The connection the whole Flock shared with these people was strange and amazing at the same time. _Finally, _Nudge thought as Ziva reached her, using the hand she had subconsciously placed on the door to push it open hastily. After she had "done her business", Nudge exited the bathroom stall, realizing how completely disgusting public restrooms were. _I guess it beats a hole in the middle of the woods, though. _She smiled at her own internal joke as she washed her hands, keeping one eye trained instinctively on her NCIS escort, noting the drooping of her eyes, which carried heavy purple bags under them, the frown set deep into her naturally pretty lips, and the slight disarray of her shiny brown hair. At that moment, Nudge noticed two things: Agent David was exceptionally tired, as well as exceptionally pretty. _Huh. I'm usually the one who notices these things first. I guess that's why Tony likes her so much. _That, she had noticed before, when she first saw the two together. It was quite obvious, really. Then another thought came to her in the form of a sneaky worm of an idea. That idea grew and developed in her genetically engineered mutant head and went on to form a totally devious plan.

"Hey, Ziva, are you and Tony dating?" she asked so sweetly and innocently that anyone would think it was a totally spontaneous question, which was probably how it came across to Ziva. Surprise bloomed across her features, lighting up her face with a delightful pink color. This is exactly what Nudge had been hoping for, of course.

"No. Absolutely not. Tony is quite a lady's man, with no time for a real commitment. I would not date him… ever." This response was expected. It's exactly how she would react to such a question.

"Do you… ya know, like him?" Nudge tipped her head to the side now, still working the innocent puppy look. Ziva sighed.

"Being with someone is not so much as 'liking' them, you know. Besides, Gibbs has a very specific rule against dating a coworker." She didn't sound very happy about said rule. Nudge was going to go digging for more.

"But he loves you. Angel told me so. The way he looks at you… I wish somebody would look at me like that one day. Anyway, my point is if he loves you and you love him, doesn't it makes sense that you two should be together? It doesn't matter what Gibbs says. He's not cupid, though he has had a mysteriously large number of wives." Tony had told her this when she'd asked some time earlier. Ziva laughed a little, but she still seemed nervous.

"Come on. We should probably go back to the others. Max will have a fit if she doesn't see us soon, and I've known Tony for six years. If there's one thing I've learned about him in that time, it's that he's is what you call a 'worry mole'," she commented. Confused, the girl stared at her for a second before realizing what she had meant to say.

"Do you mean worry wart? And btw, I think it's really sweet that he worries about you like you say he does." Nudge couldn't resist the temptation at weaseling in that little blow. Ziva's face was stubbornly blank, so her companion braced herself for a comeback or maybe an insult or two. However, Ziva smiled mischievously after a moment of deep thought.

"Is it the same way that your blind friend worries about you? Or have I misinterpreted the way you blush like a schoolgirl whenever he says your name?" she retorted. Nudge gaped at her, not believing her own ears. Not yet decided on what to say, she frowned at the woman, folding her arms and furrowing her brows.

"I am very angry with you for saying that," she announced indignantly, sticking her chin up like a five year old. Ziva, not catching Nudge's joking air, lost her smile, replacing it with a look of apology.

"I am sorry that I offended you, Nudge, but you kind of set yourself up for it," she said, in an attempt of a quick apology. She seemed surprised when Nudge laughed, shaking her head.

"I'm just kidding!" she told her, exaggerating her enthusiasm to prove her point.

They both laughed light-heartedly at the little joke, but their joviality only lasted for so long before the younger girl froze, a large shape catching the corner of her eye. Seeing her tension, Ziva's eyes narrowed.

"Nudge, are you-" she started, but was interrupted by the other's exaggerated gasp.

"Ziva! Turn... around... very... slowly," Nudge advised, taking a long pause between every word. As she spoke, the shape became more distinct, and as much as she wished she was mistaken, her suspicions were confirmed. She saw the gruesome, contorted, hideous face of an Eraser. The original model, without the creepy dog wings. When Ziva did as she was told, Nudge grimaced and allowed herself only a second's curiosity to wonder how her new friend would react. She heard a gasp from Ziva when the agent realized what a dangerous situation they were in. The grotesque creature grinned wickedly, enjoying the fear emanating from both of his intended victims. Or her. Nudge could never quite tell with Erasers. I guess gender really didn't matter when you were being hunted by them or they were slashing your heart out, Nudge thought. She almost smiled at her internal wittiness but refrained from showing any emotion on her sweet, girlish face which, admittedly, was hard for her. It was times like this that she asked herself_, What would Max do?_ _Well, Nudge, Max probably wouldn't be in this situation, but if she were, she would probably talk her way out with smart-ass remarks and pray to whoever's listening. Hard._ "So we meet again. You know, this is a public place, uglies. No dogs allowed. Who sent you? Itex?" she asked, trying to be icy cold and strong as black coffee. _Like Max._ She sent up at least fifty silent prayers that the Erasers didn't have a new talent of mind reading or sensing other people's emotions, because right then she was as scared as she was talkative. If they knew that, they had something over her, and Max wouldn't let that happen. No, she had to be fearless. Right now, that was the difference between life and death.

"You don't sound surprised, little duckling. It's almost as if you knew we were coming." The voice was male, unemotional, and smug. "You are right though. Itex is back. We are stronger than ever, and you and your new little government agent buddies will never be able to stand against us. How's your father after he left you, huh, Zee? Can I call you that?" The Eraser leaned in close to Ziva's face, his tangled, stringy fur brushing up against her smooth cheek. She gasped but stayed absolutely still, not even allowing herself to flinch. Nudge knew that, as a Mossad officer, she was trained for situations like this (well, maybe not exactly like this), but she couldn't help but bring her hand up to protect her new friend.

"No!" she gasped, her now curled fist swinging upward toward the Eraser's wolfish face, but it was too fast for her and grabbed her hand right in front of its intended target, bringing it level to its eyes, examining it closely.

"So the rumors were true, little duckling. You're hiding behind the guns and badges. I wouldn't have expected little Maxie to have agreed to something like this. Stubborn girl. It's too bad, isn't it? That she would have put you all in danger like that. But I guess their whole family is unpredictable. Baby Ari with his daring rescue back at Itex, throwing a wrench in our entire operation. And for what? His family? Love? Ha. He loved no one. Oh, and Batchelder, the newest mess up of that family, just ran off with his little darling baby. What a wimp. If it was up to me they'd all be-" Nudge couldn't take it anymore.

"Stop! Stop it! What- what do you want? What could possibly be important enough to hunt us down for in a public mall? I thought Itex was all about being secretive. Why the sudden change in character?"

"Don't try to be smart with me, or I swear I'll kill you right now. We're looking for the infant, and we came here to collect her." Nudge ignored him, as she usually did to people when she was going off on a rant.

"Were you trying to surprise us? I don't see how you would, you big hairy, useless lumps of-" She shrieked in pain as a big hairy claw raked across her cheek, leaving a long, bloody gash. The next two minutes happened so quickly that Nudge found it hard to follow what was going on anymore and let herself fall into the motions of punching and kicking and scratching and fighting for her life that she hadn't had to use in a long, long time. Before the chaos had started, Nudge had had time to catch Ziva making the first move, striking out against the Eraser that had slapped Nudge with expert speed and accuracy. After that, nothing made sense. Once the fighting was over, she found her foot at the neck of the Eraser that had talked the whole time. She froze. Time stopped. She had never been in this kind of situation before with someone else's life in her hands, just one step away from throwing this soul like a rag doll off of the face of the earth. _Come on, Nudge! What would Max do?_ She stepped back, releasing the disgusting creature from her hold on his mortality. An exaggerated gasp, followed by wet, gargling coughing, followed. "We are not to be played with. Tell your friends, ugly." For good measure, she spat right in his face, frowning as she turned to Ziva.

"You handled that well," the agent commented. Nudge lost her control, all of her resolve, and her fearlessness at that moment and without warning, broke into sobs, tears dripping from her eyes and flowing down her face. She ran to Ziva and hugged her tight, who rubbed her back awkwardly but gently in return. "Come on. We have to warn the others." Nudge followed her, pushing through the crowds absently, trying to be brave, but something just didn't seem right about something the Eraser said, about Jeb, running away with his kid. _Jeb's baby_, she thought. _O My God. Jeb's baby._

**A/N: Thanks for reading! This one is fairly long, I think. I'd really appreciate if you reviewed! **


	14. Fortune Cookies

**A/N: Please, don't murder me! I know I've taken forever to update lately, and it is absolutely my fault. I hope this chapter is to your liking.**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own NCIS or Maximum Ride. However, I do own seasons 4&5 on DVD and books 1, 3, 5, and 6!**

**

* * *

**

"Nudge! Nudge! Slow down and tell us the whole story, Honey," I suggested as softly as I could manage in my utter frustration.

After we received her vague warning back at the mall, we had run out of there like hell was following us, which might not have been too far off. We hadn't bothered to question either of them until we were safely home, and the little chatterbox went off like fireworks on the Fourth of July, rambling on about Erasers and Itex and babies. It had been almost a half an hour, and we still didn't have the story straight. In case you haven't yet caught on, her recollection of things was extremely difficult to follow. She took a deep breath and started over, more slowly this time, wincing as Iggy prodded at the wound in her cheek.

"Well, I had to pee _really _bad, so Max sent Ziva with me to take a potty break, ya know, for safety reasons. Ouch! Iggy, watch it! Anyway, while I was washing my hands and poking fun at Ziva, an Eraser came, like out of nowhere! Then he started talking all big and bad like they always do, and I got mad and tried to punch him. Then, he scratched me, and this whole fight broke out. But what was really freaky was- _Iggy!" _she screeched. He was putting that burny alcohol stuff on her cheek. Apparently, it hurts. I wouldn't know, because I never let him touch me with the stuff.

"I'm sorry, Nudge, but I have to disinfect the cut before I put in the stitches," he told her, sighing.

"_Stitches?" _

"Yes, Nudge, stitches. You're cut pretty deeply. Just close your eyes, and please, for goodness sake, _stop talking._" He took her hand in one of his, and she stiffened for a millisecond before calming down considerably. As he started sewing her skin back together, Ziva took it as her que to continue with the story.

"She handled it quite well, considering the circumstances. We had taken down about five of the creatures before we left. They wanted the child. One of them mentioned your father's name, Max," she explained, and I almost asked why we hadn't just asked for Ziva to tell us what had happened in the first place.

"What about my father?" I asked instead, because it was more important and made me sound like I actually cared.

"He said it was _Jeb's baby, _Max! Lizzy's your little sister! Isn't that, like, totally crazy?" Nudge burst out. "Ouch! _Iggy! _That_ hurt!" _

"Well, I wouldn't have hurt you if you could just sit still for more than two seconds! Now, don't move," he replied angrily. Nudge huffed but didn't argue further. Ignoring the two of them, I tried to process this new information. _I have a baby sister, too? _Bombshells like this usually didn't end well for me. I found out Ari was my brother; he died. I found out Jeb was my biological father; he turned out to be an untrustable traitor. I found out the baby we saved is my little sister… I guessed I'd have to find out and probably soon.

The whole group was watching me now, anxiously awaiting my response. My eyes traveled around the room to meet those of my family and the two new people who were supposed to protect us. Then, I put on my brave, leaderly, game face.

"Well, this was nice while it lasted, but they found us. We can't stay here any longer." The younger kids' faces fell dramatically. Angel looked up at me through her long lashes.

"But-"

"No buts. I told you we could stay until the first sign of trouble. Well, what happened back there wasn't exactly a good thing. Was it?" I snapped. The look on her face made me sorry for being so harsh, but I was the leader. I had to do what was best for the Flock. If that meant crushing their little dreams of being normal kids, then so be it. Plus, we'll never be normal kids. We have _wings _for goodness's sake. They know that, right?

_Sounds like you're the one that needs convincing. _I groaned internally.

_Get out of my head. I so don't need this right now._

_Ah, but you do. Think of your dream, Max._ Uh-oh. Not this again.

_What dream? My dream of becoming the world's first Avian-American Top Model? Or the one where you leave me the hell alone? _I knew exactly what the Voice was talking about. He/she/it had mentioned it before. Me? I was just being difficult.

_I'm in your head, Maximum. You can't keep things from me. Think of the dream. They're chasing you. Ahead of you, there's a cliff. Jump, unfurl your wings, and push down hard. _

_That's your advice? That's total bull crap. Voice? Voice? _That was just like the Voice. Give me something totally worthless and walk away. Or just disappear, considering Voices can't walk. I sighed.

"Max? Are you even listening?" asked Ziva, waving a hand in front of my face. I blinked.

"Oh. Er, no. Sorry, I was just arguing with the Voice," I stated bluntly. She looked concerned.

"The Voice?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, the voice inside my head that gives me advice. How do you think I knew to trust you guys? Well, sometimes it gives me good advice, but most of the time it's just crappy fortune-cookie nonsense. Like right now." After that possibly disturbing explanation, the Flock, looking considerably less worried, chimed in.

"What did it tell you?" asked Fang, who had been standing right beside me the whole time. I couldn't help but notice how totally hot he looked when he got all serious.

"Something about jumping off cliffs. I think the Voice is malfunctioning. It's sending me on suicide missions." Shooting me an oh-so-sexy smirk, Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome ran a hand over my back so lightly that it sent shivers down my spine.

"I don't know. I mean, you do have wings. Maybe we should all go out jumping off cliffs," he muttered in my ear. I smiled. Gazzy let out an exaggerated cough that meant our little moment was over.

"Don't you think there's a poetic meaning behind the cliff-jumping? Maybe it means we should take a chance and try staying here for a while. One little mistake shouldn't drive us off our path. Nobody was hurt, except a little scratch," said Angel hopefully. I knew where she was going with this.

"Try telling that to my freaking stitches," muttered Nudge, rubbing her cheek pointedly. Angel ignored her, continuing her speech.

"Maybe we could stay just a little bit longer and go to the school and stuff. Please, Max? Just for a little while? We can't just not trust anyone because things didn't work out last time."

"Last time? Things never work out. That's why we need to be careful with who we trust," I replied, trying not to get too angry at the hopeful little girl.

"Max, we need to get over the past, and jump off the cliff. Take a chance. We've got wings to hold us up." Angel smiled, satisfied with her argument. Suddenly, it didn't seem like such a bad idea. We could meet new people, try new things, and hopefully it will all help us save the world, one step at a time. Looking back now, I find it suspicious that I changed my mind so easily to fit to what the little mind-controller wanted. But in the moment, I genuinely thought I'd made the right choice.

"Alright, we'll stay here just a little bit longer and give the school a try. Who knows- maybe we'll actually learn something along the way."

* * *

**A/N: I know. I took forever and this was a crappy filler chapter, but it had to be done. The next chapter will hopefully take place in the new school, and fun things happen. Things you shall not expect! Muahahahahaha! Okay, well, R&R! Next chapter should be up super soon!**


	15. ExPetty Officer Jeb Batchelder

**A/N: I'm sooooo sorry! I've been horribly lazy and not updating! It's all my fault and I feel awful! I hope this chapter will make up for it, because I have some pretty good ideas to make this one long and hopefully exciting! So, instead of continuing to listen to (or read, in our case) me ramble, go ahead and start on the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Let's be frank here (unless you'd rather be Charlie, in which case I shall be Frank). If I owned either Maximum Ride or NCIS, would I write on fan fiction? The answer, my dear readers, is a big fat N-O. I would be partying it up with sexy male actors and Tony and Ziva would already be married! **

**

* * *

**

Approximately a week after the whole big argument about "to go to school, or to not go to school," Nudge was dressing up in the best clothes she'd bought on our trip to the mall, while my whine played in a continuous loop in the background.

"Max, since when did_ I_ become the mature one in our relationship?" she asked, giggling. It'd been the fifth time that I'd suggested we just skip class and fly over to the park for a day of super-duper bird-kid fun. The sun outside our window was bright, smiling ironically in at us.

"Says the girl in the unsensible, teeny-bopper outfit," I retorted. She turned back to me, frowning.

"You really think it's that bad? I thought it was cute," she replied in all seriousness. I chuckled at how ridiculously normal this situation would seem from the outside.

"No, Nudge, you look adorable, Honey," I told her, honestly. It looked pretty, but was it appropriate for a girl in our situation? Absolutely not.

Her outfit consisted of designer skinny jeans (totally unpractical- try performing a U and A in those things), a "cute" pink top, and her new sparkly silver high-tops. Her soft brown curls were pulled back in a pony tail from her pretty caramel face.

My best outfit? Not-blood-spattered jeans with minimal rips and a baggy Beatles t-shirt that had been on sale. I know- totally fancy, right? That's why Nudge is responsible for being the girl of the family. I just didn't have what it takes. Fortunately, you don't need cute, preppy outfits to be the leader of a merry band of mutant bird-kids. All that takes is a spoon full of determination, a sprinkle of love for my family, and a no-nonsense mom voice that would put even the sternest of mothers to shame.

Angel joined us in my bedroom while I was checking to make sure my wings weren't too showy underneath my t-shirt. Her favorite pink tutu was slipped over her light jeans, which added to her curly blonde pig-tails and round blue eyes to create a cocktail of almost lethal cuteness.

"Hey, Angel!" chirped Nudge.

"Are you almost ready to go, guys? Ziva and Tony are already waiting in the car outside. They've got Lizzy in there with them." Speaking of my baby half-sister, she apparently had some super-growth elixir mixed into her genetic pool, because when we'd first found her on the doorstep of Gibbs's house, she'd looked about a year and a half. Now, a week later, she could pass for a four-year-old and talked like Nudge was her biological mother. She acted so typically Nudge that, at first, I was afraid that was the case. Then, I'd remembered that Jeb was the biological father and had been way too freaked out to think about that any more. Angel, obviously poking around in my thoughts (just living up to her name, I guess), made a super grossed-out face.

"Kk! I'll meet you guys downstairs! Gotta do a bomb-check on Gazzy and Ig before we go!" Nudge announced enthusiastically before taking ridiculously bouncy steps out the door. A few minutes passed before Angel realized that I wasn't planning on following.

"C'mon, Max, we can't be late for school! Make sure you pack your books!" she reminded me as she skipped contentedly out of the room after Nudge, pink butterfly backpack in tow. I groaned.

"Of course, 'cause it'd be just tragic if I lost those," I muttered, once she was out of humanly possible ear-shot.

"I heard that!" she called from down the hall. Oh, right. We're not human.

The ride to our new school in the government-issue black van was painfully long and silent. When we finally reached the bland brick building, I waited for the rest of the Flock to get out before hesitantly climbing out after them. Noticing my reluctance to leave the vehicle (which was weird for me, 'cause I have no special love for small, enclosed spaces), Ziva turned to me.

"Max," she started, gently, as if I were a wild animal that would spook easily. I guess she wasn't that far off. But, it was irritating none the less. "Please try to act as if you actually care. For the kids."

"Aye, aye, cap-i-tan. I will carry out your orders to the best of my ability," I replied with a sarcastic salute. Plastering a huge, artificial smile on my lips, I marched on after my flock. A couple of teachers stood outside to shepherd stragglers in through the heavy double doors. Huge smiles made themselves at home on their faces, as if to say "welcome to Hell!"

And Hell it was, my dear friends. The moment I pushed through those big blue double-doors into the over-crowded hallways, I regretted my rash decision to come here. If this was what the Voice had meant about jumping off of cliffs, I'm going to have to seriously consider before we go visit the Grand Canyon anytime soon.

Pushing through the throng- what a stupid word, "throng," psh- was like wading through a river of acne-ridden, moody hippos. They all stared at the newcomers like we had some kind of disease. Had they been told about our wings? Did they recognize us from the air shows my mom and the CSM had us do? I imagined every one of them with claws ripping through their fingertips and long fangs sticking out from under their lips, blooding running in a stream down their muzzles-

"Hi! I'm Ally! You're new here, right?" I focused my raptor eyes on the girl in front of me, fortunately stopping myself from jumping in surprise. She was lucky I didn't punch her right there and then. Max rule numero uno: Never, ever startle Maximum Ride out of her thoughts. But, being oh-so-merciful, I put on my best enthusiasm mask. _Remember what Ziva said. It's for the kids. _Not that I'd started taking orders from grown-ups. No matter how surprisingly cool the grown-ups were. It was just that I'd _agreed _with her _suggestion. _

"Er- hi. I'm Max. This is…" I trailed off, realizing that the rest of the Flock had already mysteriously wandered off. Fang was still in eye-sight, watching me carefully. He always had my back. "Never mind." Ally's smile never faltered. I wondered idly if it hurt to smile so much like that.

"Well, I can show you to your classes. Can I see your schedule?" she asked, her voice still sing-songy. I reached into my new backpack- plain black, if anyone was wondering- and pulled out the paper with my class schedule on it. She grabbed it, examining it carefully. Her smile widened, if possible, as she handed it back to me. "Awesome! We have almost all our classes together!"

"Cool," was my humble reply.

* * *

The following's a list of things that I will not miss when we finally get out of this whole "school" situation:

1. Crowded hallways- always horrible.

2. Algebra.

3. Pigheaded football players with grabby hands that are now fractured in five places- Tony and Ziva had to come in and speak with the principal about me sending jerks to the hospital on the first day.

4. Blonde bimbos that happened to notice how hot Fang is. I considered sending them to the hospital, too, but Fang and Iggy held me back. I'm stronger than either of them separately, but together, it wasn't worth the struggle.

5. Classrooms with minimal exits- _so _not fun.

6. Lockers. Remembering the combination takes energy that could otherwise be conserved to- I dunno- fend off an army of mutant robots.

Other than that, I had a fantastic day at our new school. When Tony and Ziva came back to pick us up in the van, I was so relieved that I barely noticed Nudge's bubbly recap of her amazing day or Iggy and Gazzy's suspicious whispering behind me.

"How was everyone's day?" asked Ziva in an only a tiny bit sarcastic motherly tone.

"Oh, just wonderful! I love going to school! I made tons of friends, and I learned so much in just one day!" Nudge gushed.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Met some new people. Got to hear Gazzy describe Max breaking a guy's hand. It was pretty much a good day," Iggy replied.

"Oh, yeah, Max, that was awesome! You gotta show me how to do that!" Gazzy whooped.

"Maybe. It'd come in handy when fighting something actually dangerous." By the looks both of the adults in the car kept shooting me, I figured that lesson would have to wait a while.

"Hey, where are we going? Back to the house?" I asked. A change in subject seemed appropriate.

"No. We have to go back to the office for a little while. Gibbs called on our way to the school and said we have a case. We'll be too busy to protect you at home, and we can't assign anyone from another team because this mission is classified. The other case is just a cover. That's why you guys have to stay with Abby or Ducky whenever we go back to the office now. It'll be too dangerous to have you out in the open," explained Tony from the driver's seat. It suddenly occurred to me that Ziva never drove us anywhere. It was always Tony at the wheel. Hm. I'd ask them about it at a more convenient time.

"So where's Lizzy, then?" asked Nudge, jumping up and down in her seat. She'd been humming an obnoxious pop song through the beginning of the conversation, and I thanked whoever was up there that she had some kind of distraction to stop that horrible noise. Hey, I love Nudge; she's a really great little sister. But she can annoy the Hell outta me, sometimes.

"She is staying with Ducky back at NCIS," answered Ziva.

"Er, that's cool, usually, but didn't you say you had a case? Won't it be kinda- sick- to have a baby, who looks and acts like and has the intelligence level of a four-year-old, in the room while the Duckster cuts into a dead body?" I asked cautiously. Ziva glanced back at me, eyebrows raised.

"Well, he'll probably give her to Abby before he starts 'cutting into dead bodies.'"

"Oh. Right. Okay, then." The rest of the car ride was filled with Nudge's humming and the occasional comment from Total, who had mysteriously appeared in Angel's lap, about him missing his little doggy wife, Akila.

* * *

"Gibbs! You're just in time! I got a hit on the facial recognition. Our victim is ex-Petty Officer…" Abby trailed off, turning to find her new feathery friends and their dog standing in the doorway, instead of her silver-haired team leader. She frowned for a minute, before seemingly deciding that she enjoyed our presence, as well. "Hey, guys!"

"Hey, Abs. Whatcha got for Gibbs? Oh, and he sent us with his love and a Caf-Pow," I told her as enthusiastically as possible-for me- handing her the caffeinated drink. Her black lips stretched into a wide smile as she clunked over in her knee-high boots to receive her reward.

"As I was saying, the murder victim is ex-Petty Officer Jeb Batchelder. What kind of name is that? Batchelder… Batchelder… Where have I heard that name before?" she asked. I stared at the picture on the monitor behind her in shock.

"That's my father."

* * *

**A/N: Dun, dun, dunnnnnn! Alright, now that that's over, I'd like to cover some things:**

**First, I know this is sorta another filler chapter, and I know that that sucks. However, this was essential to plot-building, so it must be done.**

**Second, I know I promised some kind of action and that this is pretty crappy, but I just needed to space it out a little bit more. It'll go a lot faster once I've given some explaination for the action, which will now begin to pick up.  
**

**Third, I don't want to sound desperate and stuff, but I'd really, really appreciate it if you reviewed, because I feel like either you don't like it, or you don't care enough. It would really boost me self-esteem if you reviewed. Thanks!**


	16. More Surprises?

**A/N: Okay, so I'm pretty excited about the excitment that'll be picking up from now on. I like this chapter better than the last one, so enjoy!**

_Previously: (Max) "That's my father."_

My mouth opened and closed and opened again. I covered it with my shaking hand, like prissy girls do in horror movies when they first see the monster. This whole situation definitely felt like a horror movie. Abby stared at me, seemingly not knowing what to say about this shocking news.

"B- but that's impossible, right? Jeb wasn't a marine!" protested Nudge weakly. The thickness of her voice suggested that she was about to cry. This was a time when I was supposed to be the leader and the big sister and tell her that everything was alright. I was supposed to tell my family that everything was alright, while the man that saved us and acted as a father to us for almost ten years was lying cold on a metal table in the very same building we were in. With that thought came the horrible image of Ducky, carefully taking his scalpel and cutting into my father's dead body. I tried to push it away, but then came the squishy ripping sound of his skin tearing away.

"No, Nudge, we don't know anything about what he did when he was younger." I hadn't even meant to speak. The words sounded far away, like they hadn't come out of my own mouth. For that moment, I was a ghost, detached from my body. Watching myself and family suffer the loss of a man we hadn't even trusted. But he had been my father. He had raised me, taught me how to fight, and taught me how to fly. To think that he was gone… I couldn't think about that. I couldn't think at all. I just needed to relax and get a grip. That was something I couldn't do while cramped into Abby's loud, confined lab. With a mumbled, "need some air," I tore away from that room like I was a rabbit, who just saw a hungry fox. That fox had stared at me from a computer screen, face blank and pale, eyes closed forever.

Not really noticing where I was going and not really caring, I found myself in the tiny elevator, pressing a random button. Whatever it was, it would take me somewhere that wasn't here. Under normal circumstances, I would have jumped or braced myself for a fight when an unexpected hand shot in between the elevator doors before they closed. Right then, I couldn't force myself to care. If I'd been able to feel anything at that moment, it would have been surprise that it was Gibbs's face that followed the hand into the elevator. He stepped in without a single word, coming to stand next to me and fold his hands in front of him. I swallowed, my eyes sliding shut.

There was a shutter, and the elevator suddenly stopped. _Just my luck, _I thought bitterly. But when I opened my eyes, the emergency stop switch was flicked on, and Gibbs was looking to me expectantly. "What do you want me to say? If you followed me so we could talk about my feelings, I'm so not in the mood right now." He continued to stare at me. "What? Is there something in my teeth? Like a bug or something? 'Cause I totally hate when that happens."

"Are you sure you want to do this, Max?" he asked, unexpectedly. Couldn't people just say what they mean anymore, instead of throwing me vague hints at what they want me to know? Why not just get it out there?

"Do what? Testify against Itex and all the other mad-scientist companies that made me and my family suffer for the good part of ten years? Or go to a crappy school with jerks and bimbos and creepy teachers? Or maybe you meant live with two complete strangers, who happened to be adults, which have never done us any good in our lives? You've got to be more specific, Gibbsy," I replied. His expression was apologetic as he put a hand on my shoulder, which I immediately flinched away from.

"You pushed the button to go down to autopsy. I meant, are you sure you can handle seeing him?" he explained, simply. I knew he wasn't talking about Ducky or, as Tony likes to call Palmer, "The Autopsy Gremlin". I nodded grimly.

"I have to. I think it'll help me to realize that this is really happening. I need to come back to reality. I need to know," I told him confidently. He gave me a reassuring smile.

"Just want you to know that you're not in this alone. I'll stand by you as long as you want me there. Okay?" And I couldn't help but return his smile.

"Okay."

_Ding! _My hands trembled as Gibbs and I exited the elevator. I took a deep breath, remembering what he told me. I knew that I wasn't alone.

The doors to Autopsy opened to Ducky and Palmer poised over a lump under a white sheet. It was obvious that they were about to start… doing what they do. Ducky looked up at us when we walked in.

"Jethro! Max! What are you two doing down here? I am afraid I don't have anything for you yet. Mr. Palmer and I were just about to begin," he announced cheerily, like what he was about to do was very normal practice. Granted, it probably was for them. After giving both me and Gibbs a thorough examination, however, he seemed to notice that there was something going on. He looked to me first. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost, my dear." Swallowing a lump in my throat, I spoke in the same empty voice I'd used earlier.

"That body on the table is my father, Jeb Batchelder. I've come to give a positive ID on the body." That had sounded a bit too official, so I added, "I just need to know that this is really happening. That it's not some kind of sick joke." The room went silent. Ducky nodded and stepped aside from the body. I took a hesitant step towards it.

Closing my eyes and puffing out a deep breath, I approached the table where my dead father lay. When I opened them, I was staring at the seemingly sleeping form of a familiar man. A man who used to push me on the tire swing outside our house in Colorado, who secretly snuck me cookies in my dog crate when I was little, who changed baby Angel's diapers and picked twigs out of all of our wings. This man betrayed me and tried to tell me who I was. Seeing him there, with his eyes closed and face blank and strangely peaceful, pale as one of those puffy clouds that only show themselves on sunny days, brought it all into perspective for me. This was happening, and I needed to do something about it. I had to comfort my Flock. I had to be the leader. Taking one more glance at the bullet hole resting in Jeb's head, I turned back to the three silent men in the room.

"Okay. I've seen enough. Let's go back to-" I was cut off by a familiar voice and _ding _of the elevator opening.

"Max! What were you thinking, just running off like that? The kids are in pieces- Uh- i-is that him?" Fang uncharacteristically burst into the room, followed by Gazzy and Angel. Their faces were sunken and tear-stained. Poor kids. I was about to reply but was interrupted, once again. This time, it was Gibbs who spoke.

"Duck, Palmer, You stay with Max and Fang and the kids. I've gotta go fill the director in on the details of our case," he announced. Ducky nodded, and Palmer sank further into the wall. Obviously, he hadn't gotten over the whole talking dog and kids with wings thing. What a wimp.

The sight of Fang had straightened my back and pumped my chin up a little higher. _I am Maximum Ride. I am headstrong, kick-butt, and made to save the world, for crying out loud! I am not going to let this little mishap stop me from doing so. _Angel gave me a smile of approval from across the room, which I returned confidently._ I_ _can so do this._

"Hey, guys, where are Nudge, Iggy, and Total?" I asked, after doing a quick headcount.

"They wanted to stay with Abby. Apparently, she's going to show Nudge some weird computer geek thing to cheer her up, and Iggy didn't want to go into the elevators again. He says they annoy him 'cause they're so small, and he prefers stairs, which are better exercise. One night, he went on this whole rant about how elevators should be banned because they're unhealthy death machines. Total's just lazy," explained Gazzy. I feared he'd been spending too much time around Nudge.

For a few minutes, they stood by the door awkwardly, and I realized that the dead body of my late father was lying on a table beside me. And there were two little kids in the room, staring at me expectantly. Don't get me wrong; Angel and Gazzy are tough as nails and awesome fighters… but they're also kids. Kids who don't need to be scared by the sight of the mangled body of the man who raised them. _It's alright, Max. I told Ducky to put the body away. Gazzy and I will close our eyes. _

Sure enough, the two of them squeezed their baby blues tight while the Medical Examiner and his assistant stuffed the body back into one of the little refrigerator things they keep them in. "Alright, guys, you can open your eyes, now. It's gone." Their eyes popped opened. "Well, I guess we're not going anywhere right now… This would be a good time for a deck of cards."

"Oh! I think I have some in my desk! Uh- hold on!" Palmer exclaimed, fumbling noisily through all of his personal items. "Got 'em!" We all stared at him for a second. Figuring 'Ol Jimmy could use some encouragement, I spoke up first.

"Well, alright then, Jimmy! Let's play some cards!"

After five riveting games of crazy eights (Angel won every time- little devil child), Gibbs finally returned, with a crease in between his eyebrows and a hurried manner.

"They're gone!" he yelled, as if we would all know exactly what he was talking about.

"Who? What do you mean, 'gone'?" I asked. He shook his head, motioning for us to follow him to the stairs.

"No time to explain! I'll show you," he replied, already heading for the stairway. Apparently, the elevator just wasn't fast enough anymore.

When we finally arrived to Abby's lab, huffing and puffing, we found a total mess. Papers were ripped and tossed around, monitors were smashed in, and Total hunched in a corner, growling, hackles raised. Can you guess what we _didn't _find? That's right. No Iggy. No Nudge. No Abby.

"Where'd they go?" I asked. Angel gasped.

"Vance- he works for Itex. He kidnapped them!"

**A/N: Dun Dun Dunnnnn! More stuff that only I knew about! Hee-hee! I've had that one saved up since before I even wrote the idea for this story down!**


	17. We're All In This Together

**A/N: Yola! Thanks to all my loyal readers who haven't given up on me, despite my extreme slacking in updates and poop like that. Anyways, without further ado, NEW CHAPTER!**

* * *

_Previously: (Angel) "Vance- he works for Itex! He kidnapped them!"_

I blinked, trying to process this new information in my already fuzzy brain.

"_Whaaaat?" _I asked brilliantly. Don't get me wrong. I mean, I was used to having to deal with a lot of crap being dumped on me at a time, but this seemed a bit extreme. My remaining Flock members, plus Gibbs, Tony and Ziva (who had mysteriously appeared…?), Ducky, and Palmer stared at me, as if I was supposed to do something. What could I do? Magically make them reappear in front of me? As weird as my life was, I didn't think that I would become Harry Potter all of a sudden.

"Max? What are we gonna do?" asked Angel fearfully, burying her face in my chest. I stroked her soft blonde curls like a mother comforting her child.

"I dunno, Sweetie, but what did you mean about Vance?" Because that was a lot to just blurt out at random.

"I picked up some of his thoughts while we were coming down here, and he was escaping. They weren't normal. He was thinking something about his mission, and that the new director was going to be pleased by his accomplishment. He said some bad things about Abby, who apparently got in his way. She attacked him with a pen," she giggled, before continuing, "and almost got away. He's going to kill her if we don't get to them soon. And I don't think he knows that we know. We can use that to our advantage, can't we, Max?" I smiled. That was my little mind reader.

"'Course we can, Hon. And we're going to save them, no matter what happens."

* * *

The next morning, I sighed, rolled out of bed, and trudged down the stairs without bothering to put myself together first. Whoever was down there would just have to deal with it.

As I entered the kitchen, I immediately took notice of the presence of another person. I scanned the room and found that it was only Tony, slumped in a chair in the island. He was sporting ruffled hair, droopy eyelids, and wrinkled sweat pants.

"Lovely morning, isn't it?" he asked bitterly when I sat down in the chair next to him.

"Couldn't be better," I reply in the same bitter, sarcastic tone. He frowns and runs a hand across his face in frustration.

"I've had friends and co-workers kidnapped before," he tells me. Unsure of what to do with this information, I nod.

"And?"

"It never gets better." I nod again, this time in agreement.

"It doesn't help that it's someone you care about. I bet McGee is broken. He looked awful when we told him what happened to her," I commented. He raised his eyebrow.

"McGoogle? We're all upset," he replied. I shrugged.

"Yeah, but he seemed particularly so. I figured it was because they're kinda in love." The comment seemed to catch him off guard. It had sort of caught me off guard, too. I'm usually the last one to notice things like that. Maybe my relationship with Fang had sharpened my couple-spotting senses. _Jeezums, I'm starting to sound like Nudge! _I thought fearfully.

"Abby and McGoo? No way! Why would you think that?" Tony asked.

"I dunno. Just the way he looks at her- it kinda reminds me of how Fang looks at me sometimes. It's not much different from the way you look at Ziva. Nudge and Angel have been gushing about you two all week. It's annoying."

"Me? Look at _Ziva?_ Ha!" he argued unconvincingly. I snorted.

"Alright. If you say so," I replied. After a moment of awkward silence, I blurted, "You know they're going to be okay, right? You watch lots of movies. You must know that the good guys always win." I wondered where that had come from. Since when was I good at comforting people? I hate all that touchy-feely crap. At least Tony seemed to perk up a little at the mention of movies.

"Not always." I looked up, surprised. He was smirking.

"What do you mean, 'not always'?" I asked skeptically. "What kind of movie lets the bad guy win?"

"_Seven _with Brad Pitt. The killer murders his wife and unborn child. I'd say the bad guy won in that one," he answered smugly.

"Yeah, but who listens to Brad Pitt anyway?" I countered. He shrugged.

"You don't respect the Pitt?" I chuckled.

"Think about what you just said, Agent DiNozzo. You just called a man that has desperate teenage girls fawning over him 'the Pitt.' Am I the only one that finds fault in that?" He rolled his eyes at me, and I smiled.

"You know, you don't have to call me 'Agent DiNozzo'. That's just a formality, and I think we're past being formal by now. Don't you?" I laughed again.

"Alright, _Tony, _then you won't mind if I ask you something?" I questioned hesitantly, not sure how to go about what I wanted to say. His eyebrows went up.

"Shoot."

"Why- why did you become an NCIS agent?" I asked carefully. He brought his eyebrows together thoughtfully and rubbed his chin with his hand.

"The guns and the chicks," he replied. I frowned at him.

"Tony," I warned. He put up his hands in surrender.

"Fine. I became an NCIS agent because I wanted to help people. Because I know murder is wrong. Because I want to give desperate, mourning families closure. Because I wanna put the sick people who commit crimes in jail, where they won't be able to hurt people anymore," he answered seriously.

"Wow, that was actually kinda nice," I replied, smiling lightly, pushing his arm teasingly.

"That and the chicks and guns," he added to ruin the moment. I didn't mind. Cheesy moments weren't really my forte either. I laughed, even though I didn't find it particularly funny. I laughed because I was thankful for the distraction from all the stress of my life. That is, of course, until he had to go and ruin that, too. "We'll save them, you know. I know you don't usually trust grown-ups, but-"

"Since when were you considered 'grown-ups'?" I interjected. He shot me a quick glare before continuing.

"True, but the point is, Max, you _can_ trust us. We can and will keep you safe," he told me confidently.

"I've been promised safety before by people who said we could trust them." I stood up as I spoke. "-And that almost got us killed."

"Max-"

"Save it. I'll eat breakfast upstairs." And there went "The Queen of Charging Off," with a box of _Wheaties _in her hands and a gallon of milk in the other. If the others found out about this, I would never live it down.

* * *

"So…. What's the game-plan, Max?" asked Gazzy as we all sat around the dining room table that night for "dinner." When I say "we," I mean me, my remaining Flock members, and the rest of Gibbs's team. And why the quotes around dinner, you may ask? Well, my friends, when members of your family are kidnapped and taken by evil scientists who have yearned for your death for as long as you can remember, you tend to lose your appetite just a bit. Even if you are a mutant birdkid with an unusually high metabolism.

I sighed, not knowing how to answer the question. _What _is _the game plan, Max? _I asked myself. I sifted through all of my seriously jumbled thoughts and memories for the answer, and came up with nothing. Zip. Nada. _Zero. _The more I thought about it, the more frustrated I grew.

"Well, how do we know where to find them? Why don't we start with that? I mean, it'd be nice to know where we're going before we try to figure out how to get there," suggested Fang. I nodded, having nothing to contribute myself.

"That'd be a good idea… so… anyone got any ideas on how to find 'em?" I asked the table. I mean, I was used to quick, in-and-out rescue missions. But this would take more thought and fines. For all we knew, we could be walking in to a big trap. Actually, that was probably exactly what this was. Because everything's a test.

"That's it!" I exclaimed, standing from my chair. Every head in the room whipped around to face me, listening intently. I continued, "Everything's a test!"

"Uh, we're not following," Ziva stated.

"Everything's a test!" I repeated, but this time, I went on to explain. "If Vance doesn't know we know he's involved, we should use that, just like Angel said. We should ask Vance to help us find out where they hid Abby, Nudge, and Iggy!" I looked around at the others, to make sure they were following.

"But-if Vance is working for Itex- why would he help us?" asked Gazzy.

"Because he wants to keep his cover," guessed Gibbs. I nodded.

"And there's a pretty good chance that this whole thing is a trap to lure us into the arms of Itex, alone, so they can pick us off easy," I added grimly. "Once we get there, our first priority is to get our friends and any other poor saps they have holed up in there out. From there, well, it depends."

"On what?" asked McGee.

"How ready you guys are for battle. We need to get rid of these guys for good, so they can't hurt us anymore. But we can't do that until we know exactly who's on our side," I answered.

"I'm in," announced Fang fiercely, standing up and thrusting his fist in the middle of the circular dinner table. I grinned and stacked mine on top of his.

"How could I not be in?" asked Angel, placing her little fist on top of mine.

"Heck yeah!" yelled Gazzy, adding his hand to the stack. Tony was next, though a bit more hesitant. He turned to me and nodded resolutely. Then Ziva, who smiled devilishly my way. McGee bit his lip before putting his fist on hers. Palmer and Ducky's hands went out at the same time. We all stared at Gibbs, anxiously awaiting his answer.

"Let's do this!" he yelled, adding the last fist to our stack. And suddenly, we weren't alone anymore. We were no longer my Flock and Gibbs's team. In that moment, we became one Flock. One team. One family.

* * *

**A/N: Yay! I like it. I don't know about you though... Why don't you tell me in a review? Oh, and again, I apologize for the super duper long wait for such a short chapter, but I had a bad case of writer's block that is slowly being cured. Yay!**


	18. Captured

**A/N: I'd like to start out by apologizing about how terribly I brought about the Vance working for Itex thing… so, sorry. I'll try and make it up to you somehow. Hint hint. Wink wink. I'm pretty excited about this chapter, so go ahead and read it!**

When Iggy woke up, he had no idea where he was. His head hurt like hell, and his back was pressed against something that felt like harsh metal wire. He reached out to find that it was surrounding him. He was in a cage. Echoing around him on all sides were animal-like noises-growls, chirps, and a strange guttural sound that was almost indescribable.

He could feel someone's presence beside him, pressing against his side. His/her breathing was steady but fast-pace. Whoever it was he or she was awake.

"Iggy?" The whisper sounded like Nudge. To confirm this, he reached out to touch the back of her hand. Her skin was soft and the color of coffee. The person next to him was definitely Nudge. "Iggy, are you awake?" she asked. Her voice was heavy with fear and concern. He opened his eyes as an answer her question.

"Wha-what happened?" he asked groggily.

"You don't remember?" she responded and began to fidget. He felt her finger reach up to touch his forehead.

"Ouch!" he whispered.

"S-sorry!" she stuttered hastily.

"What happened, Nudge?" he repeated, more forcefully this time. There was a slight pause as he supposed she gathered her thoughts.

"Well, how much do you remember?" she began. He bit his lip, searching through his cloudy brain for the answer. He remembered that they'd gone to NCIS right after school and that Jeb was now dead. He voiced this to Nudge, who took a moment to answer.

"Well, uh, after Max and the others went to go see… go see Jeb, Abby offered to show me this really cool new software that she just downloaded on her computer. I swear, she has like super-fast speed there. All of her technology is just amazing. I mean—" he cut her off there, recognizing that she was abandoning her point as she often does.

"Nudge, you were telling a story, remember?" he said, a bit frustrated that he couldn't remember himself.

"Oh. Right. Sorry. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, so I stayed in Abby's lab because of the software and you stayed because of your abnormal hatred of elevators. Then, you said you heard the elevator moving, that someone was coming down. It didn't make sense because the others had just left to find Max. You said that something didn't feel right about it, so I should take Elizabeth and hide her. So I did. Good thing, too, or they would have captured her with us. There were five Erasers with Director Vance. They came so quickly that we didn't have time to put up a good fight. Abby tried with a pen, but that just made him angrier. They injected some greenish stuff in us, and next thing I knew, we were here. Abby's in the cage next to ours," she finished. To prove that statement, she took his hand and guided it to the left side of him, where his fingers grazed against one jet black pigtail.

"What about Elizabeth?" he asked.

"As much as I know, they never found her," she replied.

"Good," he said, and the relief in his voice seemed to confuse her.

"I didn't know you cared that much about Lizzy, Ig," she commented. He shrugged.

"I don't," he replied bluntly, but to save himself from unnecessary physical and verbal abuse, courtesy of Nudge, he hurriedly explained himself. "Look, for whatever reason, _they _are desperate to get to her. Do you think it's ever a good idea to give them what they want?" he asked rhetorically. He felt her shrug.

"So, what do we do now?" she asked. The question was not hopeless or childish. It was spoken with a sort of mature curiosity. Not that Iggy thought of Nudge as a little kid anymore, like Max did. She was very much capable of taking care of herself if she wished to.

"I don't know," Iggy answered honestly. "The room we're in—how many doors does it have?"

"I dunno. I only see one entrance, and you need a pass-code to get through. But, Iggy, we're in a dog crate," she replied.

"Wow. Thank you for that. Your ever-useful talent for pointing out the obvious is always quite helpful," he said bitterly.

"Oh, will you just shut up and let me finish speaking for once! I wasn't done. We're in a dog crate with a padlock on it. I can't fit my fingers through the holes in the cage to unlock it. I already tried using my power over medal to break it, but it's too strong. These cages were built to contain genetically altered experiments at least ten times as strong as us. There's no way we can get out now. We'll have to wait for a white-coat to come and open it. That'd be our best chance. But… what about Abby? We can't just leave her here, but she'd be extra weight during an escape. She hasn't even woken up yet." Iggy could almost picture her mind at work, the gears and cogs turning, grinding, and plotting. "We could steal a gurney to get her out of the building. This place has tons of them. Once we're out you'd have to fight off some Erasers and white-coats while I make a bee-line for the door. I could probably crack the code if you give me enough time. Once the door's opened, I'll give you a signal, and you can grab Abby and run. Drag her if you have to. Just make sure we get out the door. Once we have Abby out the door on the gurney, we'll be able to get her into the air, no problem. She's actually pretty light without the boots. We might even be able to find our way back on our own. If not, we'll find the nearest gas station and grab a map. We can't be that far from D.C. I mean, the ride wasn't that long, so—"

"Nudge," he said her name assertively. She broke off.

"What? Oh… sorry," she apologized sheepishly.

"No," he said, "Nudge, that was actually kind of hot." He then found it amazing that he could feel her blush through his own. Thankfully, a noise from the cage next to them saved them from an extremely awkward silence.

"It's Abby," Nudge clarified, probably as thankful as he for the distraction. "She's waking up."

"Where are we?" asked a voice that was distinctly Abby. She sounded hoarse and weary, but either she was actually very brave or a very good actress, because Iggy could not detect an iota of fear in her tone.

"We're at the School. They took us here in the back of a truck," Nudge explained. Then, after some thought, she added, "Nice pen attack on Vance, by the way. We would have gotten out if we hadn't had to hide Lizzy."

"Vance! Vance is a traitor!" Abby exclaimed, as if she had just remembered.

"Yup. Guys, I just thought of something. What about the others? They don't know that Vance is a dirty rotten traitor. He could capture them, too!" Nudge pointed out anxiously. Iggy shook his head.

"If they don't have them by now, they won't take them. Knowing the white-coats, they have something bigger up their sleeves," he said.

"It's a trap," Abby said. "And we're the bait. Wait, no, let me rephrase that! We're the fishing lures. 'Cause they can be all kinds of fun colors. Plus, I love worms, but being one would just be gross."

"Ooh! Can I be a pink lure?" Nudge requested.

"Sure. As long as I can be black and red," Abby replied.

"Igs, you can be green if you want," Nudge suggested. Iggy ran a hand over his face, wincing as it grazed the injury on his forehead.

"I can't believe you two are actually having this conversation! Does it really matter what color fishing lures we are? The point is we're part of a trap. We need to find a way to get out of the hands of the white-coats. So can we please focus on the matter at hand?" Before they had a chance to reply, a faint _beep _interrupted their conversation. The sound sent a terribly cold shock through his body, causing him to freeze up completely. Nudge's hand shot out to grip his arm. She'd heard it too.

"What was that?" asked Abby fearfully.

"Shhhh! It's them!" whispered Nudge, her grip on his arm tightening.

He heard it and felt the rush of cool air into the muggy room when the door opened and closed. Hurried footsteps neared their modified dog crates. The cage creaked when the person opened it, and suddenly, unexpectedly, he was being pulled out. Nudge's hand slipped from his arm, but he heard her scream in protest. _Slap! _Silence. Just when he was about to rip off the white-coat's head for slapping her, all of the sound fuzzed out around him as he felt the needle slip under his skin.

* * *

**A/N: Exciting huh? I know, any bit of excitement is a long time coming, but we haven't quite reached the climax of the story yet. Soon, dear readers, soon. Drop me a review if you liked it and you feel like commenting! :)**


	19. The Plan

A/N: Helllooooo! I just might have this up earlier than usual, but you might not want to start expecting it. The only reason this chapter is up quicker is because the computer that I wrote the next chapter of my other story on is currently unavailable for my use. Anyways, enjoy!

I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans, praying that I didn't look as nervous as I felt. I repeated over and over again in my head what I was supposed to say as the director's female assistant stared at me questioningly. Thankfully, I owed her no answers.

"Director Vance will be with you in a just a minute, Sweetie. Is there anything I can get you?" she asked kindly.

"Er, I'm good, thanks," I replied awkwardly. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few endless seconds, until the phone on the desk rang.

"Hello? Yes, sir, I'll send her right in," the director's assistant said into the shiny black desk phone. She nodded to me, signaling that it was okay to enter the office.

Maybe a bit too enthusiastically, I pushed the door open to find Vance, looking as serious and powerful as ever, at his desk. He was leaning back in his black leather chair, with his hands behind his head. On DiNozzo, the action seemed casual and lazy. When Vance did it, it looked more like a dictator overlooking his subjects. Under his confident stare, my stomach churned, and I looked anywhere but into his eyes. In doing this, I spotted something different from the usual case files and desktop on his desk. Three picture frames also decorated his desk. Two of them contained photos of two young children, a boy and a girl, smiling sweetly at the camera. The third was a middle-aged African American woman with kind eyes and a lovely smile.

Vance had a family.

"Max, was there something you wanted to speak to me about?" he asked. I swallowed, trying desperately to hydrate my terribly dry mouth.

"Uh- yes. I'm sure you have heard about the disappearance of your forensic scientist and my two Flock members?" I asked, my voice taking on a cold edge as I remembered why I was here. _Relax, Max, _I told myself, _keep your cool, or the plan won't work. _Thankfully, Vance did not seem fazed by my lack of hospitality. He nodded.

"I have," he replied. I waited for him to elaborate, but apparently I would have to be the one to get the ball rolling.

"So, what are you going to do about it? Can't we track them or something?" I asked.

"I already have a team on it," he replied. _Doubt it, _I thought.

"I'm sorry, let me rephrase my earlier question. What can _I _do about it? Because if you want a job done right, give it to Max," I said confidently. He stared at me silently, and because I was me, I stared back defiantly.

"Alright, Max. I think I could send you in, but you'll need help." Yes, perfect answer, Vance. I already had a response before the word "help" was out of his mouth.

"I want Gibbs's team to help us," I told him. He scrunched his eyebrows skeptically.

"You seem to have gotten awfully close to Gibbs and his team these past weeks, haven't you? I understand you're not usually one to ask for help," he pointed out. Okay, I had a ready response to that, too. No worries.

"Well, someone close to them was taken, too. It only makes sense for them to be the ones to come with is, doesn't it?" For one horrifying minute, I thought he was going to figure me out. I was never anything close to an actress. But all he did was nod.

"Well, alright. We have a convincing lead on where to find Itex," he told me.

"Excellent. How soon should we set off?" I asked professionally. My confidence had grown with the easy success of our plan.

"As soon as you're ready, I'll have a company car take you as far as they wish, and then you're on your own. That's as much as I can do for you. Are you sure you're up for this, Max?" For a second, his tone sounded sincerely concerned, but I saw the evilly eager glint in his eyes as he said it.

I smiled devilishly. "Hell, yes, sir," I replied.

"Good. You are dismissed," he ordered.

Having gotten what I wanted, I walked out the door and back to autopsy without argument.

"Did he bite?" asked Gibbs, as I entered the cold room. I nodded, smiling victoriously. "Good. Do you think he might be on to us?"

"I don't think so. He still had his good guy act going on," I told him. He nodded.

"Okay, so we know how we're going to get there, but the question is, how do we get in?" asked Tony.

"And get our friends out," added Ziva. I shrugged.

"I figured we'd do what we always do," I said.

"And that would be?" asked Ducky.

"Wing it," Fang supplied for me.

"Wing it? We have to have a general game-plan, don't we? This is a bit too important to mess up," McGee pointed out.

"Oh, don't get you're nerd panties all in a wad, McWorry-Wort. We don't even know what to expect when we get there. We're gonna need to do some on-the-spot-thinkin', anyways," Tony argued.

"When do we leave?" asked Ziva.

"Vance said he'd have a driver for us whenever we were ready. I reckon we give ourselves a night to rest, a day to ready ourselves, and leave tomorrow at noon. We'll strike under the cover of the darkness," I suggested. It was agreed then that we would wait until tomorrow.

"Max, any of you ever shot a gun?" asked Gibbs suddenly.

"What?" I almost yelled.

"From the sound of them, these people play dirty. It'd be best if we were prepared for anything, including a gun-fight," he explained. I frowned. He had a point, but I didn't have to like it.

"I don't trust these kids with guns. Teach me, and I'll cover the rest," I suggested.

"What if you were separated from them? Shouldn't they know how to defend themselves if they find themselves in a dangerous situation?" Gibbs countered.

"Uh-Max?" Gazzy muttered. I ignored him.

"Fine. Teach Fang, too, but an eight-year-old and a seven-year-old don't need to know how to handle guns!" I argued.

"They need to protect themselves!" Gibbs argued.

"Max, can I just say-"

"One minute, Gazzy! If you think for one minute that I'm gonna just let them run around with pistols like the little killing machines that the School wants them to be then you can kiss my a-"

"Max!" Gazzy persisted.

"What do you want, Gazzy?" I asked, a bit too fiercely out of impatience and stress.

"I- uh- I already know how," he said.

"You know how to what?" I demanded.

"I know how to shoot a gun. Jeb taught Iggy and me when we were still livin' in the E-shaped house. I don't need to be taught how to shoot," he told me, as if this were perfectly acceptable. I frowned, chewing my lip and mulling it over.

"Do you think you could teach me?" I asked. He smiled.

"I thought you'd never ask."

**A/N: Yeah, I know that there's gonna be some serious mistakes in here, 'cause I didn't edit it and I was watching _Firefly _while I wrote it, but it's somethin', which is better than nothin'. Plus, it's a filler. So you can see how happy I am with this chapter... Don't worry, the next one will be good. I promise.**


	20. Come To Your Senses

**A/N: Mwahahahah! I just love this chapter. Sorry to all you Eggy fans out there, but you were forewarned in the first chapter's author's note. If you failed to read it, then I can take no responsibility for whatever problems you may have with this chapter. Please don't flame me because of this couple. I like it. :) So deal with it. Anyways, important stuff happens so you are required to read it. So there. :P**

* * *

Iggy blinked, waking from what felt like a five-minute sleep. He was in a hospital bed, and something seemed wrong, different. Light flooded his eyes as he woke groggily from his drugged sleep. He blinked again, rubbed his eyes, and opened them again. His sleepy brain had finally woken up and begun to realize what was unusual about his current situation. He was looking at what seemed to be a hospital ward. Everything was crisp white, and the pungent scent of antiseptic stung his sensitive nose.

But the atmosphere was not the strange part. The strange part was that he was _looking _at the room. And to be looking at something, you had to be able to see. Which he couldn't, not normally anyway.

There was a man—a white coat- standing over him with a clipboard clutched in his meaty hands.

"How do you feel?" he asked eagerly, pen positioned readily over his clipboard.

"A-am I dreaming?" Iggy asked, feeling stupid for doing so, but the rather large white coat seemed to expect this question. An eager smile was still cemented to his ugly face.

"No. This is very much real. How many fingers am I holding up?" he continued to question him, holding up two fat fingers. Iggy decided he would do his best to do the world a favor and wipe the disgusting smile off of the man's face.

"You tell me. Your buddies took away my sight when I was nine, remember?" he replied. The man didn't drop his smile.

"Ah, but the surgery we've performed has brought it back, hasn't it? How does it feel to have your sight after all these years?" he asked, attempting to sound kind. Too bad Iggy knew better.

"It would be a whole lot better if I wasn't staring straight into your ugly face," he retorted. The man's smile faltered for a millisecond as he scribbled something down on his clipboard.

"I see," he said. Then he turned to his fellow white coat, who seemed to have appeared out of thin air. "Untie it, and bring in experiment number 0006," he ordered. The other man nodded and complied hurriedly.

After Iggy was untied, the second white coat opened the padlocked door, and when he returned, he was dragging a thin, dark-skinned female figure with a sac over her head. The man ripped the sac off of Nudge's head, leaving her unconscious form crumpled on the floor.

"Wha-what'd you do to her?" Iggy shouted, attempting to stand from the bed. His unsteady legs wobbled under him, and before he knew it, he'd toppled to the floor beside Nudge.

"Don't worry. You're little girlfriend just is fine. She should be waking up soon. Enjoy your time together… while you've got it," said scientist number one ominously. Before Iggy could question him further, he was gone.

Once the distraction of the creepy scientists was gone, Iggy gave Nudge his full attention, first checking her for visible injuries—a purple bruise on her right cheek, a couple of the stitches on her left cheek ripped opened, and slashes and bruises on her knuckles that suggested she'd tried fighting back- then just sitting and drinking in her beautiful face. It was round and caramel colored with full pink lips and long eyelashes. When those long lashes fluttered and her wide, sparkly brown eyes opened, he almost cried with relief. But that would be totally un-macho, so he refrained.

"Iggy?" Nudge whispered, pulling herself into a sitting position.

"Hey. Are you alright? You look like you put up quite a fight there. What happened to your hands?" he asked, taking them in his tenderly.

"Nothing. Just a little tussle with the Erasers. Nothing I couldn't handle," she replied evasively. Then, to save herself from further questioning, she continued to speak. "And I _look_ like I put up a fight? How do you know that, Igs? In case you haven't noticed, you're blind," she pointed out. He looked her straight in the eyes, and she looked straight back and gasped. "OMYGOODNESS! That surgery—it-it gave you your sight back?" she guessed. She was gripping his hand now, her eyes widening. He nodded, a small smile stretching across his face. Now that the horrible scientists were gone, he could finally enjoy how amazing it was to be able to see again. "O my gosh! That's so awesome, Ig!"

"You know," he began deviously, "this is the first time I've seen you since you were seven." Her eyebrows shot to the moon.

"Oh? So… what do you think?" she asked hesitantly, her cheeks turning a cute shade of pink as she tucked a stray curl behind her ear. It was nice to actually see it when he made her blush for once, instead of having to feel it or simply guess.

"Hm…" His eyes trailed up and down her tall, lanky frame appraisingly, finally coming to rest on her wide, perfect brown eyes. "I think… that you've grown up a lot," he said finally. She frowned at him.

"C'mon. We both know you can do better than that."

"Okay… Well, you've gotten taller. You have… a figure," he began carefully, feeling as if he were treading on thin ice. Fortunately, she nodded, scooting even closer to him than she already sat.

"Alright. You're getting warmer."

"So we're playing this game now? Okay. You have the same cute nose, same pretty smile, but you've… most definitely grown to be even more… beautiful," he told her, leaning close enough to her that he could feel her warm breath tickle his face.

"Now you're on fire," she whispered, her voice heavy with a level of sauciness that he was not aware a girl her age could achieve. And before he knew what he was doing, he was kissing her, and it was amazing. A rush of heat coursed through his body with her touch, and suddenly they were no longer at the School, surrounded by homicidal maniacs. In that moment, they were the only two people in existence. There was no Itex, no Flock, no Max—

He pulled away, rather reluctantly. "Nudge, Max is going to kill us if she finds out," he pointed out. This was weird. Usually Nudge was the one worried about getting in trouble with Max. Apparently, the roles were reversed in this situation.

"Let her," she replied, and just like that, they were kissing again.

* * *

"Sir, experiments 0006 and 0007—they're—uh, well, they're…"

"Spit it out, Willert. I don't have time for your maddeningly incessant rambling," demanded the newest Director.

"They're kissing, sir," replied Willert. The Director rolled his eyes.

"You interrupted my extremely important business for this? Leave them be. They're overly hormonal teenagers of the opposite sex. You put them in a room alone. It's all going according to plan. Now, leave me, Willert. I have business to attend to."

The scientist nodded obediently, hurrying out the door on which the words "Special Interrogation Room" were printed.

The Director turned back to his victim. Tears streaked down her pale cheeks, mingling with her black mascara, into her black lips. Her dark pigtails hung limp and crooked from her head, but still it was held high.

"So, brave little Abigail, why don't you tell me everything you know about your friend, Leroy Jethro Gibbs?"


	21. Somwhere Only We Know

**A/N: Hey, readers! I'm back! The second part of this chapter is based off the song "Somewhere Only We Know." I don't remember who it's by. Oh, and in honor of my hundredth review (Woo!), I'll have a couple special guests! Over here in the Maximum Ride corner we haaaaavvvve… TOTAL!**

**Total: Finally! I'm an important enough character to get on here! Where have I been though? I deserve to be in the spotlight!**

**Me: Er… I don't really know. You're mysterious disappearance shall be explained, as will Lizzy's… later. Oh, and the NCIS special guest… er… how about Kate?**

**Kate: Uh—I'm dead…and you don't even like me that much.**

**Me: Well, I like you better than Barrett, who was the last NCIS character I could think of. I REALLY didn't want to have her here, so here you are.**

**Kate: Uh… kay?**

**Me: Total, how 'bout you state my disclaimer for me, eh?**

**Total: Gpeach6 does not own anything except a cardboard box. Gpeach6 is a hobo with a computer… Just kiddin! But seriously, she doesn't own NCIS or MR.**

* * *

"Okay, Max, now all you have to do is aim, and as _slowly _as possible, squeeze the trigger—"

_BOOM!_

"Oops."

Gazzy did a face-palm.

"Max, Iggy is _blind_, and he could hit that bull's eye with his hands tied behind his back," he told me with an exasperated sigh.

"I seriously doubt that anyone can shoot a gun with their hands tied behind their back," I argued stubbornly.

"Oh, yeah? Get me some rope," he said challengingly. I frowned at him, rolling my eyes. We had spent nearly half an hour in the NCIS shooting range just going over the basics. Then, Fang and Angel both got some test-shots, and both embedded some bullets straight in the bull's eye after a couple misses. I hadn't been so lucky. After wasting nine bullets on the wall, I still hadn't gotten the hang of it.

"Just teach me how to use the stupid gun so we can get on with our lives," I ordered.

"That's what I'm trying to do, Max. Don't you think it'd just be easier if you stuck with hand-to-hand combat?" Gazzy suggested hopefully. I glared at him.

"If the white coats have guns, I want some kind of long range weapon to defend myself. It'll make my life a hell of a lot easier." Then, Ziva decided it was her turn to speak up.

"Max, how are you at throwing knives?" she asked. I shrugged.

Apparently, the correct answer to that question was: totally awesome. We left the shooting range for Ziva's apartment after we decided that the whole gun-shooting thing wasn't exactly my forte. And let me tell you: the chick has a thing for knives. She has a whole wooden case of them displayed in her living room. So, she picked out a knife from the case, gave me a brief lesson on how to throw it, and handed it to me to try out on one of her many targets. I threw it as she had advised, and it hit its target straight on. I tried again. Bull's eye. After two more tries with the same result, it was safe to say that I was pretty good at this. At least, better than I was with the gun. So, it was decided that the throwing knives would be weapon of choice.

* * *

Back at the house, we were all scattered, longing for a moment of quiet before we fought that night, probably for our lives. This could be the end, and it was just starting to sink in.

"Penny for your thoughts," whispered a deep voice from behind me as I sat on our fancy new leather couch. I smiled as Fang's strong, dark arms wrapped around me.

"This could be it, you know. Our last day on Earth. Weird to think about, huh?" I replied. Without another word, he stood, grabbing my hand.

"C'mon," he said, tugging me in the direction of the French back doors.

"Where are we going?" I demanded.

"Somewhere only we know," he replied vaguely. I grinned. I knew he was talking about the little bench in the back of the garden where we'd taken a liking to sitting and talking over the past week.

Once he found our little spot amongst the trees, which were now turning all kinds of fun colors, he sat down, pulling me down next to him. I laid my head on his shoulder, and he swung a muscled arm around my shoulders.

"I have a confession, Fang," I told him.

"Yeah? Shoot."

"If we make it through this, I have no idea where to go or what to do next. I always have a plan. That's how we're all still alive. But this time… We've grown too close to them. Closer in just a week than we were with Anne in a month. Trusting people… it doesn't work for us. It never has. What happens when it's over?" I asked hopelessly, looking up at into my best friend's eyes. To my surprise, he was smiling wistfully.

"It's changed you," he said. I frowned at him.

"What do you mean?"

"This whole experience has changed you. You trust people," he told me matter-of-factly. My frown deepened.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, you just confided all of that in me. You trust Gibbs and his team enough to fight beside them. You let me talk you into coming here. I think you learned something from all this," he said smugly. I rolled my eyes at him, picking my head up off of his shoulder so I could look at him straight on.

"What, exactly, do think I've learned?" I asked.

"That placing trust in other people doesn't always end in disaster, and that some people are genuinely good," he answered. A silence set in as I thought about what he'd just told me. I thought about the conversation I had the other morning in the kitchen with Tony and felt a stab of guilt. Because that same man was about to run knowingly into a trap to risk his life for us. Of course, there _was_ the added incentive that Abby, who they all thought of as a little sister, was also captured. I shook my head. Maybe I'll never learn to fully trust people.

"Let's say you're right, just for the heck of it, and I have learned to trust. It still doesn't change the fact that everyone who ever helps us ends up getting hurt. Look at my mom, who got captured by a creepy Chinese man! Or Jeb, who's…" I choked on the word "dead."

"Well, they were willing to take that risk," Fang supplied to my relief. I sighed, laying my head back on his shoulder.

"Why are our lives so screwed up?" I asked him. He kissed the top of my head affectionately.

"I don't know," he replied truthfully.

"Well, we should probably be getting to bed, then. We should get as much sleep as we can before midnight," I suggested. He nodded, helping me up.

I didn't sleep a wink that night.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the shortness. I wanted to get it up quicker, and I liked the idea of using the song for the title, so it had to be the main part of the chapter. I hope that made sense.**

**Total: It didn't.**

**Me: Oh, be quiet. Kate, would you please politely ask my readers to review?**

**Kate: Uh… review, please? Bye…**

**Total: B-bye!**


	22. Everything Is Not As It Seems

Nudge woke to complete darkness. The scientists had broken her and Iggy apart, shoving needles into their arms and dragging them away to unknown locations. She was scared to say the least. Sitting up carefully, she wondered how Iggy could ever stand being blind. Anyone—or anything—could be in the room with her, and she wouldn't have any idea.

As if the room itself had heard her thoughts, blinding, cold white lights flickered on with a distant _boom, click, click. _"Hello?" Nudge's voice echoed off of the walls, weak and hoarse, almost sickly sounding. No reply. Once her eyes had adjusted to the harsh light, she scanned her surroundings frantically, searching for a threat. White walls, white floors, no doors or windows. The room was completely empty except for a black lump about ten feet away from Nudge. The lump shifted and moaned in a familiar voice.

Upon closer inspection, the lump was not a lump at all. Nudge recognized two pigtails, a black and red plaid skirt, a black t-shirt, and pale skin. "Abby?" she whispered cautiously. The tangle of limbs rolled over to reveal the young forensic scientist.

"Nudge?" Abby mumbled groggily. Nudge rushed to her side, relief flooding through her at the sight of a familiar face.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, fine," the older woman whispered, sitting up slowly and rubbing her eyes. "Where were you guys?"

"I don't know. Some hospital room, somewhere in the building. Iggy and I—we—uh…" Nudge stuttered, blushing fiercely. She hadn't had much time to think about what had happened between them, with all of the worry that pressed against her chest.

"Kissed? Yeah, I heard some idiots talking about it," Abby answered, smirking. Nudge smiled back but realized that Abby couldn't see it, as she still had her eyes squeezed shut.

"Is there something wrong with your eyes?" she asked.

"What? Oh, no. They must have—uh done something to them," she answered vaguely, turning away from the younger girl.

"Abby, what did they do to you?" Nudge asked, her eyes widening, her stomach churning.

"Nothing." But the resident mutant's raptor-vision caught the tear running down her cheek. Something felt horribly wrong about this situation.

"Abby?" she asked shrilly, grabbing her hand. "Please, look at me."

"I would… if I could," "Abby" replied, her eyelids flying opened to reveal empty black sockets.

Nudge's stomach fell to her knees, causing them to tremble pathetically. She pushed down the bile that rose in her throat and pulled her hand away like it'd been burned. Backing away hurriedly, she tripped over her own feet and fell on her butt. She began crawling on all fours. "A-Abby?" she whispered.

"No," whatever it was replied, its upper lip curling into a cruel imitation of a smile, "Abigail Scuito is dead, along with her pathetic team of investigators and your bumbling band of freaks."

"I-I don't believe you." Her voice came out weak, almost sickly-sounding, and she hated how vulnerable she was.

"You don't?" Fake Abby asked mockingly, her voice twisting into something like screeching tires. "Well, maybe this will change your mind." She snapped her fingers, and the room fell back into darkness. A _click _sounded from somewhere in the distance, and suddenly there was a flickering projection covering the walls, floor, and ceiling of the small room. Surrounding her was the blurry image of Abby, the real Abby, seated on a small wooden chair in the middle of a small room, not unlike the one Nudge was in now, next to a tall man in a sharp black business suit. Her eyes were opened and filled with tears, her pale skin was spotted with purple bruises, and her pigtails were messy and uneven; but she was otherwise unharmed and completely alive.

"So, brave little Abigail, why don't you tell me everything you know about your friend, Leroy Jethro Gibbs?" the man requested.

"I won't betray Gibbs," she whispered, "not in a million years."

"Very well," said the man, almost remorsefully. He pulled a shiny silver object from his pocket, and before either Nudge or Abby had enough time to scream, he'd slit her throat.

The image changed. Iggy sat alone in a damp, dark, dungeon-like place, huddled against the wall his leg was chained to. Though his eyes were closed, as if he was sleeping, Nudge knew better. His face and body were stiff, like he was waiting for something. It didn't take long to find out what he was waiting for. Two Erasers emerged from the darkness ahead of him. They poked at him experimentally, and before they had time to react, he jumped up, sticking out a leg to sweep the first Eraser off of his feet. All the stupid lug could do was look surprised. He fell hard, right onto his head, on the stone floor.

The second Eraser was faster. He reached out an arm to grab Iggy's, twisting it at an unnatural angle. Iggy's face stiffened even more in pain, but he didn't cry out. He kicked back with his other leg, but in his current state, it missed its mark, enabling the Eraser to catch it with its paw.

"You're dead, now, little freak," it said, releasing Iggy's limbs to grab his face and bring it close to his.

"And just what makes you think…" Iggy coughed, splattering blood on the Eraser's face, "… that you have any room to call _me _a freak?" he asked, making one more desperate attempt to escape while the Eraser was distracted by wiping his furry cheeks clean of blood.

But it was too fast for him. It picked him up by the neck.

"Alright. No more funny business, freak," it announced. "Don't you wish," it began, as it started twisting his neck at an unnatural angle, "that you had just a little more time to talk to your little girlfriend. Maybe you could have told her that you loved her, or that you were sorry that it had to be this way. Well, you're time is up now, _Iggy." _Then there came a terrible _crack _that meant the Eraser had broken his neck.

Nudge screamed. "No! NO! Stop, please stop!" Tears sprouted from her eyes, and her whole body crumpled to the floor.

But it didn't stop. The image changed once again. Max, Fang, Gibbs, and Angel stood alone on a hill in an open field. Far behind them was a winding road below the small, grassy hill; far ahead was a huge barb-wire fence. The sky above them was gray, threatening rain.

"Guys! It's all clear!" Angel called behind them, and five more familiar faces emerged from the shadows. Gazzy, Angel, Tony, Ziva, and McGee greeted the others solemnly. Nudge wanted to scream, "Trap!" but she knew they wouldn't hear her. All she could do was watch, without the willpower even to close her eyes or cover her ears, for she knew what was going to happen.

"So-o-o…. what now?" asked Gazzy.

"Yeah, how do we get in?" asked Tony. They all looked around expectantly.

"We don't," said Max.

"They come to us," finished Gibbs. For a few moments, everything was quiet, and those in wait looked anxious and ready for a fight.

Then, all of a sudden, they came. There had to be hundreds of Erasers, armed with machine guns, racing over the hill from the direction of the fence. Some called out with ridiculous battle cries, others looked determined and serious.

The Flock instantly sprang into action, the others following. Angel used her mind powers to make the Erasers shoot each other and themselves. Max and Fang flew up to meet the Erasers and stole their guns, shooting blindly at clusters of the creatures. Gazzy crept along in the shadows, tossing bombs strategically at certain points, as if he'd had this practiced for some time. Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, and McGee used their hand-guns to take down the Erasers in front, one at a time. Ziva took out her knife when one got close enough, and slashed its throat.

But it still wasn't enough. There were too many of them. Soon enough, the Erasers overpowered them. Gazzy went down first. One of the Erasers found the source of the random explosions, and came up behind him. The little pyro was too caught up in the excitement of the battle to notice until there was a bullet in his back. Angel screamed, losing focus long enough for her victims to recover and aim their guns at her forehead.

"ANGEL!" shouted Max, Fang, and Gibbs at the same time, running to her. Fang reached her first, just as the bullet left the Eraser's gun. It hit him right in the chest, as he jumped in front of the small girl. She wailed, sobbing over his still body. Max caught up with them next, collapsing next to Fang's body, throwing herself over him.

"C'mon! C'mon! Wake up, Fang! Wake up! You can't just die on me like this! WAKE THE HELL UP!" she screamed, shaking him. The clouds finally began to shower them with cool rain, but it was no relief to any of them.

"Max!" Gibbs shouted, running up to them. "We have to keep moving! You're making yourself an easy target! What the hell are you—Oh, God."

"Gazzy's gone too!" Angel sobbed. "They-they snuck up on him from behind, and sh-shot him right in the back!"

"We have to keep going, Max," Gibbs persisted. Max glared at him.

"I can't just leave him here!" she shouted, though the rain and sweat streaming down her face began to mingle with another liquid. Tears.

"We have to! He's gone, Max!"

"No," she growled. "He-he promised he'd never leave me again," she whispered broken-heartedly.

Gibbs, having had enough, attempted to pull her off of the body, but she wouldn't budge. Defeated, he grabbed Angel's hand and fled before they could get shot, too.

Tony and Ziva were the next fatalities. Tony had spotted a bomb near where Ziva was battling with an Eraser. Weaving through the maze of fallen bodies and fighters, he reached her just in time for the bomb to go off on all three of them. Both agents and the Eraser were lost in the explosion. McGee, who had seen it happen out of the corner of his eye, froze, eyes widening with fright. Caught like a deer in head-lights, he had made himself an easy target for the enemy, and soon fell beside his friends.

Meanwhile, Gibbs and Angel fought their way through, desperately struggling to make it to the fence on the other side. But their energy was spent, and their spirits were drowned by overwhelming grief. It didn't take long for the Erasers to surround them, and with pleasure, put bullets through both their hearts.

The projection faded back into blackness. Nudge couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. She didn't know how long it was until the lights flickered back on. She didn't care. Honestly, all she wanted was to lie down and cry, but the tears just wouldn't come. Numbness engulfed her whole body.

"Why? Why kill all the others and keep me alive?" she asked.

"Well, my dear, we already had you in our grasp. We didn't need to kill you right away," she answered, surprisingly.

"Then why take time to torture me like this first?" Nudge asked. By now she was just stalling for time. She wasn't sure why. No one would come and save her now. Everyone she knew was dead. Come to think of it, the thought of joining them in peace didn't seem like such a bad option anymore.

_No, _said a voice somewhere inside her. It was her inner Max. _You are going to stand and fight. Kick her ass, and do it Max-style, with killer smack-talk. _

"My mother always told me not to play with my food… but I never listened," Creepy-Fake-Abby-Thing replied.

"Er… Do you think we could… ya know, postpone the part where you eat me? I'm—uh—not ready to die yet," Nudge requested casually. _I said smack talk, not small talk! _scolded Inner-Max.

"I don't think so. Any last words, Nudge, before I cut your throat out?" asked CFAT, pulling a knife out of nowhere.

"Uh—yeah. Ya know, I'm really sick and tired of being the damsel in distress. It's about time I learn to rescue myself." With that, she kicked the knife out of CFAT's hand, and caught it in her own. Kicking out with her other leg, she swept the monster off its feet. It landed with a thud on the hard floor. Before it had time to get up, Nudge sat down on its stomach, pressing her knife to its throat. "Now, would you like to tell me how the hell to get out of here, or should I just kill you now and find out for myself?"

* * *

Iggy felt like a monkey had just pelted him with a thousand coconuts. Weird simile, he knew, but accurate. There was a terrible pounding in his head, and he felt achy all over. When the scientists had come and separated him from Nudge, they'd shoved needles with a strange sedative in their veins, and it seemed to have a strange affect on his brain. It felt fuzzy and his memory was blurred.

Opening his eyes, he remembered with a surge of satisfaction that he could see again. Looking around, he realized he was in a dungeon-type room, chained to a wall, and he was not alone. Two other figures, both obviously female, were huddled together against the wall opposite him. With a start, he realized that one of them was Abby. Her lips were the same pink as the average human being, her pigtails were frizzy and uneven, and her pale skin was bruised all over; but it was definitely Abby. She was definitely alive. Her eyes were wide-opened and staring at him, and her breathing was normal.

The woman next to her was unnaturally thin, wearing a blue, blood-stained shirt that hung off her body. She had flaming red hair and an attractive face that could have been any age from early thirties to late forties.

"Iggy!" exclaimed Abby. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Who's your friend?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. Iggy, meet Jenny Shepherd, the former Director of NCIS," Abby announced.

"Former Director? What happened? Did she quit?" Iggy continued to question. They both grimaced.

"No, she died."

* * *

**A/N: Yeah. I know. I really suck at foreshadowing. I think it's a disease. Anyway, wasn't that a creepy and depressing chapter? Did you guys really think I'd kill everyone off like that? Tell me what you think! Don't worry, that wasn't just a random thing I pulled out of my butt. This was planned from the beginning, along with Vance being a baddy. Oh, and how do you think I pulled off the action-y stuff? It was really fun to write. Was it as fun to read? Please let me know what you think!**


	23. Sweet Songs and Battle Cries

**A/N: You're gonna love this chapter. Just to clear stuff up, NO ONE IS ACTUALLY DEAD AT THIS POINT. And, when stuff happens in Nudge's or Iggy's point of view, it's happening at the same time as whatever's happening in Max's point of view. Keep that in mind!**

I spent nearly an hour staring up at my ceiling, trying to make shapes out of the puffy white clouds I'd painted on its sky blue surface. Having only come up with a few white blobs, I stared around at the walls—lime green for those curious readers out there. Then, finally tiring of doing nothing, I rolled out of bed and yanked my boots on over my pajama bottoms, deciding to go check on the kids.

I crept down the empty hallway. Well, as much as I could creep in my ever-so-handy but ever-so-loud combat boots, that is. About fifteen feet from the door of Angel and Lizzy's room, I froze. Having been more focused on muffling my footsteps and avoiding creaky floorboards, I hadn't noticed that the door was slightly ajar, allowing a sliver of golden light to leak out of the crack. And standing in that light, hair disheveled, gray t-shirt and plaid pajama pants wrinkled, was very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. His gaze was focused on something—or someone—inside the room, as he bit down on one side of his lip; the other side was turned up in a wistful half-smile. He started swaying slightly, like he was listening to music.

When I listened closer, I realized that that was exactly the case. A smooth, sweet, accented voice carried through the doorway, singing softly a lullaby in a language I didn't recognize. The voice was beautiful and familiar. I took a step closer so I could hear better. In doing so, I stepped on one of the creaky floorboards I'd been so careful to avoid minutes ago.

Tony's head snapped towards me so fast I was surprised he didn't get whip lash. He blinked at me, as if emerging from a trance. "Max?" he whispered, squinting through the darkness. I cleared my throat and blushed, feeling as if I'd interrupted something private.

"Yeah, it's me," I whispered back, stepping into the light. He frowned.

"What are you doing up?" he asked. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Did you really expect any of us to sleep?" I retorted. He shrugged, losing interest in our conversation. His gaze slid back to its original object of focus. I peered around the door to see what he was looking at. The scene I then witnessed was so unbearably sweet and hallmark-y that I could've thrown up all over it right there.

Angel and Elizabeth sat up in their bed, a pink quilt pulled up to their chins. Angel's long blonde curls were pulled back in pigtails, but Elizabeth's shorter brown ones were spread over her face and the wooden headboard behind her. Sitting in the middle, wiping their tears—which was _so_ my job—was our very own Ziva David. It was her voice that filled the room and hallway and annoyingly warmed my heart.

"Beautiful, isn't she?" commented Tony. When he glanced at me and caught my raised eyebrow, he hastily explained, "I mean her singing."

"I know exactly what you meant," I said, dropping him a wink.

Before Tony had time to respond to my teasing, the door across the hall opened. I jumped and twisted in the air, doing a complete 360 and landing in a fighting stance. Gazzy appeared in front of us, throwing his hands up in surrender. Frowning, I let my body relax. I reached out and ruffled his hair, earning a dissatisfied grunt in response.

"What brings you to our little hallway party, Gaz?" I asked quietly.

"Couldn't sleep. Thought I heard voices. Why are we whispering? Why is Tony making googley eyes at Angel and Lizzy's bedroom? Is that Ziva singing?" he mumbled.

"Jeezums, somebody's awful talkative this morning," I said. He shrugged.

"I figured since Nudge isn't here to talk our ears off…"

Thank you, Gazzy, for that little reminder of the totally crappy situation we're in. When I shot him a look, he didn't notice, as he was now listening intently to Ziva's lovely singing.

Soon enough, Fang emerged from the shadows, claiming to have had only minutes of restless sleep. I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes. All too soon, the song ended. I opened my eyes to find that it had put the two little girls two sleep. With a soft smile, Ziva carefully untangled herself from Angel and Elizabeth and stood from the bed. She turned.

With a quiet gasp, she finally noticed our presence. "Have you been—"

"Eavesdropping? Of course. I didn't know you could sing like that. Since when can you sing like that?" Tony said.

Ziva shrugged. "I could not sleep, so I decided to check on the kids. Those two were awake, trying to comfort each other. I figured I would pitch in. I—I used to sing it to my little sister to help her sleep," she explained to Tony. He stared straight in her eyes, and I had another feeling that I was intruding on a private moment.

"It was… beautiful." Oh, dear. He looked about ready to kiss her. Thankfully, Gazzy ruined the moment.

"I'm hungry," he complained, rubbing his stomach for affect. The magic of the moment vanished in a puff of smoke and fairy dust. "I need to get something in there before-" His stomach growled angrily in warning.

"Oh, God no, Gazzy! We need to feed him, Max!" Fang said. He was actually expressing emotion. Pure terror.

"What? What will happen if he doesn't eat?" asked Ziva anxiously.

"He… expresses one of his… powers," I said, doing nothing to hide the look of disgust on my face. "Let's go get something to eat. We don't need a… explosion so early in the morning. Plus, I'm a bit hungry myself. I haven't eaten in, like, hours."

I sat on a kitchen stool, happily munching on leftovers from dinner a few nights ago. One of the many things I'd learned since coming to NCIS: Ziva David makes killer lasagna. In fact, most of her food was almost as good as my mom's. And though my heart ached for my mother and sister, I was getting used to living with the two special agents in the cushy house with good food and wearable clothes.

"Alright, Gaz. Time for bed. We've got a… challenging day ahead of us," I said. He groaned through a face full of muffin. Did I mention Ziva had made muffins for breakfast yesterday? In case you were wondering, they were delicious. Be jealous.

"I don't wanna go back to bed," Gazzy whined. "I doubt I'm gonna fall asleep anyway."

"Too bad. You need to get some rest. Hey, Zi, do you think you could do some of that fancy singing trance magic you just performed on the two youngest?" I asked. She smiled.

"I'd be delighted. Come on, Gazzy. We'll need you to be at your best tomorrow," she told him, ruffling his hair. His pout melted into a grin, which turned into a yawn.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to get in a few more hours of siesta time," he conceded, following Ziva out the swingy kitchen door and up the stairs.

That left me and Tony alone. Again. Awkward, much? I chewed busily on my lasagna, desperately avoiding conversation. Apparently, he had other ideas. He reached into the fridge, pulling out a six-pack of root beer.

"Want some?"

I shook my head, and there was a minute's pause in the conversation while Tony took a sip of his root beer, looking awfully thoughtful. It was a little while before he spoke again.

"Ya know, she asked me once… if I ever regretted never getting married, having a family of my own," he told me. I looked up from my lasagna.

"Erm… who?" I asked. I was pretty sure I knew who he was talking about, but that didn't explain why he was even telling me this. In answer to my question, he pointed toward the ceiling, where Ziva's voice leaked through the floorboards. (Gazzy, of all people, had chosen the room above the kitchen.) "Oh. So… what'd you say?" I asked, still confused.

"Nothing. But I'd still been sure, back then, that the definite answer was no."

"Oh," I said again. "But now…?"

"I'm not so sure," he finished, sighing and taking a swig of root beer.

"So… Why are you telling me this again?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I dunno." He looked down at the tile floor, eyes closed, once again in deep thought.

I sighed. Sometimes I really wished I was totally cold-hearted and apathetic. Then I could avoid moments like these, when I had to gather up my small puddle of charm, and use my quick, on the spot thinking for good. Things would be so much easier if I were a robot.

"You'll still have a chance at that. Maybe if—when we get out of this mess, you two could…" I trailed off.

He shook his head softly, putting his bottle to his lips, pausing for a second, then chugging the rest of his root beer. I frowned at him. My whole being futilely resisted what I was about to do. I forced myself to do it anyway. I wouldn't want to die knowing that I'd left things unfinished.

"I—I'm sorry." There. I said it. He looked up, startled.

"Excuse me? Did the invincible Maximum Ride just apologize?" he teased. He dropped it at my infamous death glare. "What about?"

I rolled my eyes. "That you might not be able to marry her because of us. And for freaking out on you that morning," I said.

He shook his head again. "It's not your fault. Every adult you've ever met has hurt you. It's become sort of a reflex to draw away from them."

"Still, you guys are about to risk everything for us. You've done so much already," I said. Resisting the urge to say something cynical to ruin the moment was almost painful at that point. Still, I refrained.

"But you couldn't be sure. Plus, they took people we care about, which pisses off Gibbs. Gibbs is not a man you want to piss off," Tony pointed out.

I shrugged and nodded. "Are you sure you're ready for this, Tony? The stuff you might see could be pretty… disturbing. And it could be the last thing you see."

"Of course I'm ready for this. We protect our own," he assured me, pushing my shoulder affectionately.

I couldn't control my smile. "Thanks, Tony."

He smiled back. "No problem, Max."

I stared absent-mindedly out the window of the black sedan, tightening my grip on Fang's hand. We were driving through windy roads, headed toward rural Virginia. We'd decided to just take the car to save our energy. The air was deadly silent. Nobody wanted to say anything that they could use against us with Vance's goon in the driver seat.

Half an hour later, our driver parked the sedan below a grassy hill. We got out without a word, and they drove away immediately following everyone's exiting the car.

As we all started towards the hill, I held up a hand, signaling for the others to wait. "Gibbs, Ange," I ordered, gesturing towards the awaiting hill. They nodded, and we went ahead.

A chilly breeze played with my hair and rustled piles of lost colorful leaves, which seemed rather out of place. There were no trees for miles. I spotted a barbed-wire fence on the other side of the hill, guarding an invisible fortress, it seemed.

I looked at Angel, and she nodded. There was nothing there.

"It's all clear, guys!" I called back to the others. They emerged from the grass below and looked around them. For now, it seemed, we were alone. Out of habit, we all tensed for a fight, drawing our weapons.

I've never in my life been more thankful for our paranoia. It just might have saved our lives that moment, because just then, hundreds of Erasers popped out of holes under the piles of oh-so-innocent leaves.

"Kill the birdkids and all who stand in our way!" they shouted, waving their machine guns in the air.

"This will be fun," I commented, aiming my first knife.

**A/N: Ahhh! Ha ha ha. I know something you don't know. But please don't fret, dear readers. I'm not some mass character murderer. I'm not like that. Anyways, the next chapter is the long-awaited climax, so stay tuned! **


	24. Confessions in a Time of War

Nudge's sparkly silver converse were annoyingly loud on the concrete floor. The hallways in the School were eerily uninhabited and suspiciously lacking in security. Still, she traveled them warily, constantly glancing over her shoulder and not allowing herself the freedom of letting the sobs escape her aching throat. The time for crying would be later, when she'd escaped. Then, she could cry on Ducky's shoulder when she told him the news. _Ducky, _she thought, _I still have him. If nothing else, Ducky, Palmer, Total, and Elizabeth still have a chance of being alive. _That was the thought that kept her going and kept her heart from completely breaking.

"… escaped, sir. It was a mistake. I'm sorry, sir. It won't happen again." Nudge jumped as a voice carried around a corner. Searching desperately for a hiding place, she threw open a door labeled "Custodian's closet," and slipped inside.

"It better not! Find it, if it's the last thing you do! And if you don't, it very well will be!" barked a second familiar voice. Nudge stifled a squeal.

"Yes, sir, Director Vance," said the voice of the weasely scientist that had slapped her and taken her to die in the white room. Then his footsteps scurried off down the hallway. A door opened and closed.

Nudge waited, biting her lip in anxiety, until Vance's footsteps, heavier than that of the scientist, receded down the hall. She then cracked the door and edged quietly out of the dark closet. When she started back down the hallway, she made more of an effort to be silent.

Finally, she skidded to a stop in front of a plain wooden door labeled "Dungeon." Normally, she would have giggled at how normal the door with such an ominous name looked. But the memory of what Abby's creepy clone had shown her was still too sharp in her mind, and before she could stop them, tears were rolling down her cheeks. This could have been the place where Iggy…

Nudge found her hand on the doorknob before she'd consciously decided to go in. There was a long, dark stone stairwell whose darkness, had she not had raptor vision, would have blinded her completely. As it was, she stumbled a bit and missed steps.

After several minutes of seemingly interminable downward travel, Nudge spotted a rectangle of dim light ahead of her. Her pace quickened with the beating of her heart. It was reckless, she knew. An Eraser could jump out and surprise her any moment, and she wouldn't be in the right mental state to defend herself. But she couldn't bring herself to care.

However, when she reached the end of the stairs, a surprise of a completely different sort hit her like a ton of bricks. In front of her, having a hushed conversation in the corner of the dungeon, were two people she had just watched die and a third that she didn't recognize. They looked up when she gasped.

"Nudge!" Iggy cried, standing and limping as close to her as the chain that tied him to the wall allowed. She ran the rest of the way to him and threw herself in his arms, sobbing hysterically.

"Y—you're alive!" she gasped, looking up into his eyes and pressing her lips to his frantically. He kissed her back, though with a little less ferocity, and pulled back first.

"Wait, you thought I was dead?" he asked, his blue eyes widening as he stared at her.

"Uh, it's a long story," she replied, peering behind him. "Abby!" she squealed, running to her older friend. The forensic scientist pulled her into a tight hug.

"Nudge! Are you alright?" she asked, wiping a tear from the young girl's cheek maternally.

"Um, yeah, I am now," Nudge replied. "Who's your pal?" she whispered, glancing pointedly at the red-headed woman who was watching the scene awkwardly from her position on the floor.

"Oh, this is former-Director Jennifer Shepherd. Jenny, this is Nudge." The two greeted each other with small waves and muttered "hi"s.

After a moment of thought, something occurred to Nudge with a surge of hope. "Wait! If you guys are still alive, then the others might be, too! But… you're here… They must have been planning on doing those things… which means… Oh my goodness! We have to get out of here. Fast. We have to help the others!" she yelled, bustling around the dungeon to examine the chains attached to her friends.

"What? What's going on, Nudge?" asked Iggy.

"I—I was in a room, there was this fake Abby, and a projection, showing all of your deaths…" she struggled to explain.

"What are you talking abou—"

"Shhhh! I have to focus!" scolded Nudge, concentrating on the metal that anchored their restraints to the walls. She imagined calling them to her and their landing on the floor in front of her. When she held up a hand directed at the metal anchors, they did just that. With a deafening _BOOM, _her friends were free.

Iggy smiled. "You've been practicing," he commented appreciatively.

"A little," she said, blushing. "Now, we have to go. We need enforcements, fast."

Getting into through the door marked "Recently Tested Experiments" wasn't the hard part. Nudge just hacked into the security system, and in a record thirty seconds, they were inside. The tricky part was getting the other mutants, at least eighty in dog crates lining the walls on all sides, out. Their cages had heavy duty locks, all with separate codes to unlock them. Nudge watched as Iggy's bubble of excitement, which had gradually built up when she told him her plan, burst before her eyes.

"It'll take you forever to unlock all those locks," he said, deflated.

"I'm not so sure," she said, winking at him knowingly. Confused, her three companions stared at Nudge as she tried to focus her powers on the series of locks. She pictured each of their gears turning and clicking, and the locks themselves opening and flying off. Then she imagined a magnetic force pushing off of her body and towards her target. With a series of _clicks _and _clangs, _she succeeded. Smiling, Nudge opened her eyes to examine her work.

All of the mutants, Abby, Jenny, and Iggy, were staring at her as if they'd never seen anything like her. Her smile widened.

"Hello, fellow experiments," she began. "You've been turned into mutants, treated like animals, and tested on like lab rats! Now, who's ready to fight back?"

* * *

While the others pulled guns from their belts, I aimed my first knife straight at the first Eraser, putting it right between its eyes. As soon as the first blow struck, the clouds above us broke in a shower of icy cold rain. I looked at Ziva just in time to see her drop me a mischievous wink, before launching into action, sending knives and bullets through unsuspecting Erasers with professional speed and accuracy. Seeing that the others were doing alright, I whipped around, sending another blade flying toward another Eraser. When one got close enough, I grabbed hold of the barrel of its gun, yanking the weapon out of its hands and thrusting the butt towards its head.

Soon enough, the world became a blur of punches, kicks, flashes of silver, disorienting curtains of rain, bullets to dodge, and an undying will to survive. So when Angel screamed, the sound came from another planet, far away, and took a millisecond longer than usual for my brain to process. A millisecond longer than I had. Thankfully, the Eraser I was fighting was distracted by the scream as well, giving me time to see what was happening.

"GAZZY!" I shrieked, but my yell was muted by the sounds of battle and the roar of the downpour. An Eraser had sneaked up behind him, pointing his gun to my little pyro's back. It was too late, though. I would never get to him in time. The Eraser's finger was squeezing the trigger, slowly. Angel was screaming. We were out-numbered. They were going to kill Gazzy. They were going to win, and I could tell by the evil grin stretching across the Eraser's face that it knew. All hope was lost.

That was, until the Eraser fell to the ground with a _thud _in a flurry of sparkly silver, fur, and blood. His bullet whizzed past Gazzy, who finally realized what a dangerous situation he'd been in and jumped back a few feet.

"Not this time, Wolfy," growled our savior, standing up and wiping her bloodstained, dirty hands on her designer jeans. Nudge gave the Eraser one last kick for good measure, turning and smiling sheepishly in my direction. "Sorry we're a little late, Max. Hope we didn't miss the party."

My heart nearly burst with pride. If we'd had time for gushy reunions, I would have cried with relief. But, in light of the current situation, I decided it wasn't the best time.

"We?" questioned Gazzy hopefully, looking almost in tears himself.

"Oh, yeah," said Nudge, as if she'd simply forgotten until now. "Guys! It's time!" she yelled over all of the ruckus in the direction of the hill. Confused, we and even a few of the Erasers turned to look.

Marching obediently up the hill like a makeshift army, were at least eighty mutants, looking vengeful and bloodthirsty. There was everything from part bird to part lion with long, pointed fangs, to indescribable kids with huge claws and scaly skin. Leading the charge, a bit battered but with determination set in their eyes, were Iggy and Abby, along with an attractive but sad-looking lady with long red hair. Oh, brother. At least she was too old for Fang.

The Erasers, a bit dazed by the new turn of events, finally came to their senses and charged at the oncoming troops, who seemed to be anticipating the attack. They fought like deadly warriors, always predicting their opponent's next move before they even twitched a muscle. The rest of us stood back in awe of their amazing skill.

"Breeding a whole army of warriors then locking them in cages and mistreating them _before_ they brainwashed them? Not one of the white coat's brightest ideas," Nudge pointed out, coming up to stand beside me on my left, her busted lip turning up in the corner.

"Yeah," I agreed. Then, something occurred to me. "How did you…?"

"Later," she replied, cutting off my question.

"Right." Now was not the time to play catch-up.

At that moment, Abby, Iggy, and the mysterious red-haired woman emerged from the battle, Iggy with a gun in his hands, grinning his most devilish grin. Abby and the woman were also armed, but they didn't look as happy about it. I didn't even know Abby knew how to shoot a gun. I guess I never thought to ask.

"Who's…" I began, but I was cut off once again by Gibbs, who was charging toward us like his life depended on it.

"Jenny?" he panted, once he'd reached us. The look on his face and the tone of his voice suggested he'd just seen someone he knew to be dead.

"Hello, Jethro," greeted the woman in a small voice, looking anywhere but at Gibbs. I frowned.

"What the Hell is going on?" I demanded, but I might as well have not spoken at all. Gibbs was staring at the woman, apparently Jenny, with great intensity, as if he had to commit every line of her face to memory before she disappeared.

"A-are we dead?" he asked, and there was a softness in his voice I was sure Leroy Jethro Gibbs was incapable of on a normal basis. As he spoke, he finally acknowledged the rest of us, frowning mournfully.

A flash of a smile crossed Jenny's face. "No, Jethro. You're not dead. We're not dead," she replied cryptically.

"How?" Gibbs asked. She looked down.

"Um, sorry to butt into whatever's happening on your side of the planet, but there's kinda this war thing going on over there that I wanna get back to," I interrupted. Hey, I wanted answers just as much as the next girl, but I was pretty sure now wasn't a good time, considering we had a much larger problem on our plate.

Unfortunately, my practical plan was interrupted by the appearance of McGee, Tony, and Ziva. Pushing past the others and sloshing clumsily through the mud, McGee launched himself at Abby, pulling her into his arms.

"Oh, thank God you're alright," he said with a sigh of immense relief.

"I'm fine, Timmy," she assured him quietly, standing on her tiptoes to plant one right on his surprised lips.

Alright, am I the only one wondering why everyone can't just save all their gushiness until after we're done fighting evil scientists? These people and bad timing. Jeesh.

After McAbby were done having their moment, McGee turned around and, along with his two partners, finally noticed the extra person.

"Jenny?" they all shouted in unison. Weird. I must admit, my curiosity got the better of me.

"Okay, I just have to know now. Who the Hell is she?" I insisted. Our group went silent, leaving the sounds of battle in the background to fill in the space. How pleasant.

Seeing that no one else was feeling rather chatty on the subject, Nudge stepped up to the plate. "Max, uh, this is Jenny Shepherd. She was the director of NCIS before Vance," she explained. "She, er, was shot and killed a few years ago." Ah. There it was. The look on Gibbs's face, the tone of surprise in all of their voices. She was dead. Well, that made sense.

"Well, now that that's all cleared up, I think we've got more important matters to attend to," I said. The others gaped at me.

"You don't even want to know how she's here?" asked Nudge incredulously. I shrugged.

"Sounds like a 'later' problem to me. I think it's best if we live in the now," I suggested, and with no further argument, we threw ourselves back into the battle.

I was totally on a role. I'd just taken down five Erasers in a row. The first had been easy. It'd backed away from another experiment, and all I'd had to do was pull a long, curved dagger (my personal favorite from Ziva's collection) from my belt, and swing at its legs. With a cry of outrage, it went down. The second had been more thought out. I'd flown over top of it stealthily, and waiting for just the right moment, I dropped straight down on it with all my weight, knocking it to the ground. Once it was down, I stole its gun and tossed it to a grinning Gazzy. The next one went down in a flurry of flailing limbs and bullets, so fast I couldn't keep track, the next two following suite. So you can imagine my surprise and annoyance when Tony called me over to him.

"Hey, Max, Gibbs! Cover us for a sec, will you?" he yelled over the shouts and gunfire surrounding us on all sides.

Sharing a quick look with Gibbs, I literally fought my way over to where he and Ziva were standing. I shot him a questioning look, which he returned with a wink. Then, he turned to Ziva, like the battle and Gibbs and I didn't exist.

I didn't have time to ask him what he was doing, because I had a much larger problem to deal with at the moment. Gibbs and I left opened a small clearing for Tony and Ziva to have their conversation while we fought off Erasers left and right. I had a terrible suspicion of what he was going to say, but surely he wouldn't. Not here in the pouring rain while we were all fighting and bodies of mutants and Erasers were falling around them.

"Tony, what are you doing?" I heard Ziva ask.

"There's something I have to tell you," he replied.

"Can't it wait?" she questioned impatiently.

"No… it can't. I realized something, when I heard you singing last night. No, wait, it was earlier than that… I think it was when you left, when I thought you'd died in Somalia, and I was so sure I was never going to be able to tell you. But when we saved you, I decided I had to tell you while I had the chance, but every time seemed like the wrong time…"

He wouldn't. Not now.

"Just get on with it, DiNozzo!" yelled Gibbs, a blow from an Eraser on his left.

He was going to do it. Oh my God. He was going to do it right here right now. He wouldn't, would he?

"I-uh- I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me, Ziva David?"

He did it.

* * *

**A/N: omg! That took sooooo long! I'm so sorry! I started writing it the day after I put up the last chapter and I thought to myself "Oh yeah, self! You're gonna get up this new chapter the day after the last one!" But I failed. I had trouble putting it all together and trying to make it interesting, 'cause it was the long-awaited climax. I don't know if I like it or not, but this is what I came up with.**


	25. Out of the Blue

_Previously: (Tony) "Will you marry me, Ziva David?"_

There was a two-second pause. She stared at him incredulously. I stopped to turn and see her reaction. A single gun-shot sounded over all the others.

I could not make out if the scream was mine or Ziva's or both. All I could comprehend in those two seconds was the circle of red that was growing on Tony's lower abdomen.

The Eraser I'd been fighting must have mustered its wits then. It picked up its gun and thrust it toward my forehead. I crumpled to the ground. When I put my hand to my injury, it came away red. My vision was turning blurry.

I thought I must have been hallucinating, because the last thing I saw before the world went black couldn't have been real. I saw a four-year-old racing up the hill from which we'd come and two frantic men chasing after her.

* * *

"Is she dead?"

"No, stupid, she's just sleeping."

"She looks dead."

"Don't be so ignorant."

"Hey, don't talk to her like that!"

"Defensive, much?"

"All of you, shut up! I think she's waking up!"

"Really?"

"Sh!"

"Max? Are you awake?"

I tried to open my eyes. They were greeted by a harsh white light outlining at least a dozen concerned faces hanging over me. I shut them.

"She's awake," confirmed Angel. "Hey, Max, how ya feelin'?"

A slur of Gibberish flooded through my lips.

"What, Max?"

I tried again.

"I think she wants us to heard sheep," Gazzy guessed.

"She said 'Shut up. I'm trying to sleep,'" a familiar voice told them.

Ignoring the horrible burning when I did so, I opened my eyes again. It had, in fact, been Gibbs who had spoken. He was leaning against the doorway of my hospital room, looking the same as ever. His silver hair was combed to perfection. His dark blue polo shirt, suit jacket, and white undershirt were just as crisp as the first time I had met him. But maybe, just maybe, there were a few extra lines in his face than when we first met. And his cocky smirk had a little less arrogance and a little more exhaustion.

Standing around my bed, cleaner than I've seen them in days, was the Flock. They all had a few bruises, casts, and band-aids, but they were relatively in one piece. Ducky, Palmer, McGee and Abby were standing among them, with the same air of concern.

I counted heads. I counted again. My throat closed up. I didn't want to ask. But I had to.

"Where are Tony and Ziva?" I asked hesitantly. The red-haired woman, Jenny, was also missing. But her absence didn't give me the same feeling of loss. More curiosity. I didn't _need_ to know where she was.

Gibbs's face grew solemn. The silence in the room grew thick and suffocating.

"You've been out for a while, Max," I heard Nudge say. I didn't look at her. I stared straight at Gibbs, looking for answers.

"Where?" I persisted. I had to know that I hadn't led them to their deaths.

"Tony just got out of surgery. Ziva is with him," Gibbs answered.

I stood from my lumpy hospital bed, ignoring the blooming pain in my forehead. "Where?"

"I'll take you. Along the way, I can explain… things," said Jenifer Shepherd, appearing mysteriously in the doorway.

I nodded and followed her down the hallway.

"Where do you want me to start?" she asked, as we made our way through the maze of passages.

"Start with what happened after I went down," I said.

"You're not going to believe it, but I'm going to tell you a lot of things that will be hard for you to believe right now," she began. I simply nodded again, curious as to what she meant by that. "After you went down, the Erasers started to overwhelm our side, and those who could fly had to do so just to have some kind of advantage. Everyone on the ground was busy trying to protect you and Tony, while Iggy tried to stop the bleeding. Without him, you'd both probably be dead. But I digress.

"Even with the mutants' help, we were outnumbered, and their reinforcements just kept coming. That was, until the Gasman blew the whole building, and everyone in it, to bits."

"Director Vance?" I asked.

"As far as we know, he died with the rest of Itex," Jenny replied.

"No body?" I guessed. She shook her head. "What about the rest of the Erasers?"

"This is where the story gets a little… weird, for lack of a better word. Tell me: what was the last thing you saw before you fainted?"

I shrugged. "The Eraser hit me with the butt of his gun." A lie. I wasn't sure what I'd seen. But I wasn't about to tell this lady I barely knew about what could very well have been a hallucination. That is, until she gave me a reason to.

She seemed to deflate a bit. "Nothing else?"

Something in the way she said it crumbled my resolve. What could go wrong if I just told her? "Well, not exactly. I thought I saw Eliza—I mean, a little girl running up the hill, but I figured I'd just imagined it."

"You didn't. Elizabeth was there. She saved all of our lives," Jenny explained.

My mouth dropped open. "Whaaaa?" was all I could get to come out of it.

"Elizabeth Batchelder was born to be part of an army of mutant warriors that Itex was building. They figured if they started the training at birth, the children would never be capable to have minds of their own.

"Lizzy was their prize possession. Every child had a unique talent and a unique test that they had to pass every day to be fed or given water. She was the best-nourished in their "collection." They thought her talents limitless. She had everything from telekinesis to telepathy to the unimaginable. Her tests got harder and crueler day by day. She passed every single one. They started injecting her with a newly tested hormone that would speed up her aging process until she reached the age of eight. That way, they would be able to use her sooner.

"Or so they thought, until her father, Jeb Batchelder, got tired of watching them use his daughter. He rescued her and dropped her off at Gibbs' door for you to find and save. Or maybe he knew she would save you. Either way, after you went down in the battle, Elizabeth ran over that hill. With one look, all of our enemies fell to the ground. Whatever she did, it was pretty amazing."

She gave me a moment to digest all of this information.

Once I had finally swallowed her speech, I asked, "And where do you fit into all of this?"

"I led Jeb to Gibbs. Then I killed Jeb," she answered casually.

I froze in the middle of the hallway. Nurses and doctors gave me dirty looks. "You did, did you? Well, I guess I should thank you, then. My father was scum," I said, trying to keep any emotion from leaking through my voice. I didn't even know what I was feeling at the moment.

"No, Max. Your father was a good man," Jenny promised.

"I guess that's why you killed him, then," I growled. Her constantly contradicting herself was seriously rubbing me the wrong way. Why don't people just say what they mean anymore?

"He was already dying, Max. They were slowly poisoning him, because they suspected his treachery. It wasn't the first time he'd stolen one of their experiments and plotted against them. You're not the only one who got tired of his constant switching sides," she replied, sending me a pointed look.

"Okay. I get it. But one thing I'm still not getting is how you ended up in the middle of this. Didn't Nudge say that you used to be the director of NCIS? How did you get mixed up with Itex?" I asked, pretending I was completely following her story.

"I was sick. Slowly dying from terminal cancer. My doctor contacted a scientist, a man he went to college with, who claimed he could save me… for a price. Well, I had nothing to lose. I was as good as dead, anyway. I met with the scientist from Itex, and he said he could cure my illness and get me a job with his company. But I would have to cut all of my ties with the outside world. All of the people who knew me would have to think me dead. I didn't think I had any choice. So, I let him take a DNA sample as he instructed. They made a clone, an almost exact copy, and sent her into the gunfire to die for me."

"Woah, woah, woah! Wait just a second. You didn't find any of this strange or suspicious at the time?" I asked, cutting into her story.

"Of course I did. I thought they were all insane," she replied, laughing a little, "but when you know you're about to die, you aren't exactly afraid to take chances." Her face took on a bit of a mournful look as she remembered.

"But what happened after they had you?" I asked, my curiosity winning over my need for courtesy.

"They cured me, as promised, but they kept me and tested me for years," she explained.

"Wait, so the scientists had a cure for terminal cancer, and they only used it to save one person?" I questioned. I know I'm not the most educated girl in the world, but hasn't finding a cure for cancer been, like, a big thing for a while? I wasn't surprised that _they _had been the first to figure it out. As insane and creepy as they were, they were equally smart. That's what made them so dangerous. But I'd always sort of wondered what would happen if they'd been the first ones to come up with something that could be so beneficial.

"They had their own agenda. Think about it, Max. I was the director of a federal agency. My "death" meant that they were able to plant their own spy into the government…"

"And they could get away with a lot of creepy, insane stuff because Vance was "leading" the case," I finished. She nodded. I felt sick. We stopped in front of a wooden door.

"This is it," Jenny announced, pushing the door open.

I covered my mouth with my hand to muffle the embarrassingly girly noise that wanted to escape.

The small hospital room was painted an irritatingly bright, cheerful blue. All kinds of beepy medical machines were placed around an uncomfortable-looking bed pushed against the far wall. In that bed, his waist wrapped up in gauze like a mummy, laid Anthony DiNozzo. He looked unnaturally pale and strangely peaceful. If it weren't for the steady _beep, beep, beep _from the heart monitor and his chest's constant rising and falling, I would have thought him dead.

Ziva, looking to be in even worse shape, sat in a fold-up chair next to him. Her slim, tan hand was wrapped around his. She was wearing the same clothes she was wearing during the fighting, but now they were wrinkly as if she had slept in them. Her round, exotically beautiful face was streaked with tear stains, and her brown eyes were sparkling with the appearance of more waterworks.

"She hasn't left his side since we arrived. You should have heard her growl at the nurse who informed her that she wasn't allowed to sit in during the surgery," Jenny whispered in my ear. Her mouth twitched up in the corner.

Ziva looked up when we entered. She simply nodded in our direction and went back to staring at Tony's face. The way she looked at him made me think she felt that she could wake him up just by sheer will.

"How is he?" I asked, just for something to say. I tried not to let any guilt slip into my voice.

"The doctor says he will be fine." Her voice was rough and thick from crying.

"Well… that's good news. Did she give you an estimated time of when he'll wake up?" I asked, studying his still face. It gave me the creeps.

"No."

"Look, I'm sorry I got you into this mess, and I don't apologize to just anyone. What I'm trying to say, Ziva—"

I broke off mid-sentence. I could have sworn I'd heard a moan. All eyes shifted to Tony.

"Was that…?"

Another moan. It had definitely come from Tony. Ziva was shaking his hand now.

"Tony? Tony, can you hear me?" she asked frantically, letting fresh tears flow.

He shifted, mumbling an incoherent slur of words. Apparently, Ziva had understood, because she smiled a little bit.

"What? What'd he say?" I asked, turning to Jenny, who was also smiling.

She shook her head a little bit. "'I've seen this movie.'"

When I turned back to Tony, his eyes fluttered open. I almost cried in relief. But that would be un-super-cool-emotionally-controlled-Max of me.

Tony's eyes searched Ziva's for a moment. She stared back. Then, all of a sudden, her lips were on his in a frenzy of passion and longing. Tony responded immediately, with an equal measure of intensity. It was completely out-of-the-blue. Jenny and I could think of nothing to do but stand there awkwardly.

I coughed. I mean, sure they had just spilled years of bottled-up emotions and unspoken words into one spontaneous action. But there were other people in the room. They should really learn a little something called self-control. Fang and I didn't just go around making out in public.

Though they physically separated, their gazes never broke from each other's. "Yes," said Ziva.

"Yes?" echoed Tony.

"Yes, I will marry you," she clarified.

"Awww! O. My. Zebra-printed-skinny-jeans! I have to help you find a dress! Who's gonna be your bridesmaids? What are you thinking for catering? Iggy makes a mean five-layered cake!" Nudge rambled excitedly, bursting through the door.

"It's true," agreed Iggy, following her into the room.

I know I probably should have been wondering where they had come from and how they managed such amazing timing. But all I could think was, _Zebra-printed skinny jeans? Is that what the 'Z' in Z.O.M.G. stands for? Then wouldn't the 'Z' come last, in place of the 'G'? _

I was starting to think I needed therapy. Is it usual to be wondering about strange acronyms just after going through a traumatic experience and learning a bunch of new, really creepy stuff? Or maybe it's just a "me" thing? I'd have to ask Ducky. Apparently, he had some kind of degree in psychology. But I digress.

The rest of the Flock and Team Gibbs had filed in behind Nudge and Iggy. I don't think that little hospital room was meant to hold so many people at one time. I was seriously starting to feel some claustrophobia.

Gibbs approached DiNozzo's bed slowly. The look on his face made me thankful I wasn't Tony.

"Uh-Boss-I know about Rule #12, but I really love her, and I think…. Boss? I-I'm injured. I think this hospital has a strict policy about head-slapping patients…" he begged, keeping a watchful eye on the older man.

"You didn't injure your head, DiNozzo. Well, at least, not in the battle. I'm sure your parents dropped you on it at least once or twice as a child," put in McGee, who was watching from a safe distance. He seemed best off after all of the fighting. There was an amused twinkle in his dark eyes and a smirk pulling one corner of his mouth upward. His only injury was a small cut on his forehead. Not to mention, his arm was wrapped around Abby's.

"OW!" Tony shouted, as Gibbs' palm made contact with the back of his head. "Hey! You didn't Gibbs-slap McGoof-Ball over there! If you haven't noticed, he's having some in-office McRomance as well! Wow, two McNicknames in one statement! I must be feeling better!" Tony exclaimed, his eyes lighting up.

Gibbs, smirking a little, pushed through the crowd to McGee. Seeing his fate was inevitable, the young geek turned around and offered his head to Gibbs. There was a satisfying _smack! _

Then, the unexpected happened. Gibbs strode over to Jenny, planted one right on her unsuspecting mouth, and once he had pulled back, reached behind him and gave himself a smack on the head.

We all stared, open-mouthed. Gibbs studied all of our expressions emotionlessly.

"Satisfied? Now, if you all wouldn't mind, I wanna talk to Max alone for a minute," he said, jerking his head toward the door.

Confused, I nodded and followed him out into the hallway.

"What is it?" I asked.

"How would you and your Flock like to join my team?"

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, it's a bit rushed. Yeah, a lot of stuff happens. But I like it. So there. Also, I'd like to know if I should go straight to the epilogue from here, or add in another chapter for Max's immediate reaction? I really, really, really, really want your opinion, so please review!**


	26. Happily Ever After

_7 months later…_

_Ding!_

"… didn't do anything! This has to be some kind of mistake!"

"Yeah, sure, lady. That's what they all say." Fang pushed the woman out of the elevator, rolling his eyes.

"I just don't see why you're dragging _me _into this! It was all her fault, anyway! _She _called _me_!" protested the man that Tony was currently dragging through the bull pen.

"Liar! You called me! How could you even say that, you bas—"

"Woah, there, Miss! Watch the language!" Tony scolded, cutting off the woman's outraged shrieking.

I smiled. "Good work on turning them against each other, Gaz," I told him, ruffling his hair. He beamed up at me.

"Aw, shucks. It was nothin' but a couple fake phone calls. But you and Gibbs better get up to interrogation before those two rip each other's heads off," Gazzy responded, jerking his head in the direction of the quarreling suspects.

I nodded, smirking. "Gibbs?"

He stood from his desk, and together, we set off towards interrogation.

When we pushed through the door, Fang was sitting in front of the scruffy-looking man, Stanley Myers. Myers cowered slightly at Fang's intense stare. My dark, unemotional, sexy, beautiful—uh… you get the point—boyfriend nodded slightly to acknowledge our presence, growled at Myers, and pushed back his chair to stand in the corner.

Gibbs and I took our seats across from the scummy man. We stared him down for a couple minutes, waiting.

_R-r-ring!_

"Gibbs… Oh, hey, Abs… I'm kinda busy here, Nudge… Okay. Good work, you two." Gibbs glared at the suspect as he shut his phone. "That was our forensics team. They found traces of cocaine on your pants."

Ah, got to love good old fashion police work, huh?

"Sure, I was dealing, but Sheila threatened to kill me! I believed her after what she did to Tom!" The man threw his hands up, backing away from the two fiercest glares on the planet.

"You knew she killed him, and you didn't tell anyone?" I asked.

"That makes you a bit of a coward, now, doesn't it Stanley?" Gibbs taunted.

Stanley's eyes narrowed. "I didn't have a choice! She would have killed me," he growled.

I leaned over the table, placing my narrowed eyes inches from his just long enough to freak him out. Then, I turned to the two-way mirror on the opposite wall. "We'll just see about that, won't we, Angel?" I called.

"Angel? Who's Angel?" Myers asked, eyes widening slightly.

"Our secret weapon," answered Gibbs. I smirked, mockingly waving my hands around and whispering "ooo".

Then, the door opened slowly, dramatically, and in entered our secret weapon. Her pink tutu and blonde curls bounced threateningly with every step her flowery pink converse took. Her little hand slammed down on the table. "Why'd you do it, dirt bag?"

Stanley, stunned, just stared. All he could do was open and close his mouth like a dying fish.

Angel held up a hand. "Don't answer that question. I know why you did it. But Tom was your brother, and Sheila killed him. And after all she put you through… you still…" she trailed off, glancing uncomfortably at me and Gibbs.

"What, Ange? What'd he do?" I asked, looking between Myers and the little girl.

The man was completely at a loss. "You all have lost your minds! How could this little girl possibly know anything? I've never seen her in my life!" he argued.

"Ha! You call us insane, when you…" she stopped herself again, blushing.

"What did I do, huh?" he pushed, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Max, please don't make me say it," she whined.

"What? Say what?" I asked, confused.

"Ya know… they… they did what you do… when you… when you're grown up and…" Angel stuttered awkwardly.

"Oh, for the sake of grilled cheese! He slept with the lady! She didn't have to threaten him because they were partners in crime!" Fang exclaimed as he stepped out of the corner where he'd disappeared.

"Oh," I said. Angel and I both blushed.

"How could you possibly have known that?" squeaked Stanley, standing from his chair. His face was bright red in either outrage or embarrassment. I was guessing a little bit of both.

I looked at Gibbs, thoroughly amused. "So, Gibbs, does that qualify as a confession?" I asked, smirking.

"I think a judge'll pass it," Gibbs replied.

The door opened again, and Tony's head poked in. "Hey, Boss, did Angel get it?" he asked. When Gibbs nodded, he came in and handcuffed Stanley. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court… blah, blah, blah. C'mon, Stan, we'll reunite you with your murderous girly-friend."

* * *

Laughter echoed through our dining room. The whole team, plus Director Shepherd—or Jenny, as I have come to refer to her—was gathered around the long wooden table in our home. I smiled. _Home, _I thought, knowing without a doubt that this was where I was supposed to be.

"Mommy, Daddy, Maxxie! Somebody's at the door!" announced Elizabeth from her high chair.

Alright, a couple parts of that statement could use some explaining. Firstly, "Mommy" and "Daddy" were what she, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel had taken to calling Tony and Ziva, who had somehow become our legal guardians. I suspected Jenny had pulled some strings. It sort of warmed my heart to think that the kids had finally gotten the parents they'd always hoped for. Secondly, among our dear little baby's plethora of powers lies clairvoyance. Yeah, talented kid, I know.

A second after Lizzy said this, the knocker fell loudly against the front door. I frowned. Every single person who knew of the existence of this safe house was either dead or sitting at the table with us. Or so we thought, anyway. Confused, I looked around to see that the majority of the family was also puzzled. Jenny, Gibbs, and Abby were smiling like they knew a secret.

"Hey, Max, can you get that?" asked Jenny innocently.

"What? No 'please'?" I responded sassily, just to be difficult.

"Oh, just get the door, kid. We arranged you a little surprise," Gibbs ordered.

Insanely curious, I stood and headed for the front door. When I opened the door, the sticky, hot summer air rushed into the cool house. But in that moment, I couldn't have cared less. On the front step, grinning like it was their job, stood two people I hadn't seen in over seven months.

"Mom! Ella!" I shouted, wrapping my arms around them. "How did you find us?"

"Special Agent Gibbs called us at the old safe house and told us where to find you," Mom explained.

"Is Nudge here? Iggy?" Ella asked excitedly. The three of them had become close in our time with my mom.

I laughed. "What? No love for your only biological sister?" I asked, pretending to be hurt.

Ella giggled in response. "Aw, I still love you, sister dear. I just love my friends more," she joked.

We all smiled. I led them inside, where they were introduced to our new family members and greeted by the old ones. Looking around at all of them, I thought about how crazy it was that this all started with an Eraser fight in a convenience store. It was funny, I thought, that that day the voice had told me that Gibbs' team would help us save the whole world. Which they did, I guess. But, mostly, they saved us.

_Poof! Black and white picture settles on Max's smiling face._

* * *

**A/N: Ahhh! The end of this story! That's so crazy! I've been writing this baby for years! This is my first completed multi-chapter fanfiction! Applause is welcome. Oh, and obviously, I decided to go straight for the epilogue. Sorry for those reviewers who wanted another chapter, but I just didn't have enough content for another one. It would have felt dragged-out and dry. But, anyway, there's going to be a sequel up before the end of this month, hopefully. For those of you out there groaning, thinking, "Jeezums, she squeezed as much as she could out of **_**this **_**story. How's she going to write a decent sequel?" Well, aren't you just party poopers? It's gonna be good, and a lot different from this one. It'll focus mainly on the Flock's lives after the fact. It won't be as much of an action story as a crime drama/characters figuring out who they really are fic. I mean, seriously, I can only resurrect Itex so many times before it starts to get old. Alright, well I'm totally rambling (this is probably the longest author's note I've ever written, like, in my life), so bye-bye! Don't forget to keep an eye out for the sequel to this story, **_**Wings with Guns! **_**Haha. I'm cool. Not really. **


End file.
